|V  t  w  ', 


,  i  r-i 


**•/ 


' 


THE  CRUCIFIXION 


OF 


PHILLIP  STRONG 


BY 

CHARLES  M.  SHELDON 

AUTHOR  OF 

"IN  HIS  STEPS  (WHAT  WOULD  JESUS  DO?), 
"HIS  BROTHER'S  KEEPER,"  ETC. 


CHICAGO 
ADVANCE  PUBLISHING  Co. 

215  Madison  Street 

1S98 


COPYRIGHT 

BY   A.    C.    McCLURG   AND  CO. 
A.  D.  1894 


COPYRIGHT 

BY  THE  ADVANCE  PUBLISHING  Co. 

A.  U.   1898 


To  the  members  of  Central  Church,  Topeka,  Kansas,  and 
to  other  friends  who  listened  to  the  story  of  Phillip 
Strong  during  the  winter  of  1893,  this  volume  is 
affectionately  dedicated  by  the  author. 


:i36 


INTRODUCTION 
To  "THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG." 

There  are  men  who  in  the  pulpit  project  and  glor- 
if3r  ideals  whose  drearns  of  the  nobler  life  melt  into 
fine  mist  and  disappear  because  no  force  of  purpose 
put  them  into  action.  Preachers  often  see  visions  in 
the  Study  and  display  them  in  the  Sanctuary,  that 
nobody  else  ever  sees  except  in  their  sermons.  The 
power  to  idealize  and  to  awaken  ideals  in  others  is 
the  first  movement  towards  high  art  in  living-  as  in 
painting-,  in  building-  a  character  as  in  building-  a 
cathedral.  But  it  is  only  the  first  movement,  and 
without  sequel  of  resolve  and  service  it  is  valueless. 
"Our  grand  business  undoubtedly  is,"  says  Thomas 
Carlyle,  "not  to  see  what  lies  dimly  at  a  distance, 
but  to  do  what  lies  clearly  at  hand."  And  it  is  also 
undoubtedly  true  that  as  one  does  what  he  sees 
"clearly  at  hand"  the  distant  visions  lose  their  dim- 
ness and  vagueness,  and  become  a  part  of  the  imme- 
diate horizon.  He  that  "doeth"  shall  ''know."  He 
that  "walketh  uprightly"  and  who  "shuttethhis  eyes 
from  seeing  evil"  will  soon  "see  the  King  in  his 
beauty  and  behold  the  land  that  is  very  far  off." 
Dreaming  must  be  transmuted  into  doing. 

The  demand  of  the  pulpit  in  our  age  is  the  power 
to  set  forth  by  words  well-chosen  and  by  attractive 
parables  which  give  truth  in  concrete  form,  the  pos- 
sibilities of  individual  and  social  life.  But  well- 
chosen  words  and  illuminating  parables  must  find  a 
still  more  concrete  interpretation  in  the  quality  and 
the  deed  of  the  preacher  and  of  the  people — the 
church  which  he  represents. 


When  I  read  "The  Crucifixion  of  Phillip  Strong" 
in  its  first  edition  I  scarcely  knew  the  author;  but  I 
felt  that  a  dreamer  had  seen  more  than  a  shadow, 
and  I  wondered  of  what  stuff  he  himself  was  made. 
The  story,  it  seemed  to  me,  was  born  in  a  soul  im- 
pressed with,  and  sometimes  oppressed  by  the  reality 
of  life.  The  earnestness  of  a  divine  conviction 
seemed  to  run  like  a  fire  along  every  line.  I  at  once 
wrote  to  the  author  concerning  the  book:  "It  is  a 
wonderfuly  strong  and  effective  contribution  to  the 
Christian  literature  of  this  age.  Every  minister 
ought  to  read  it — and  everybody  else."  The  story  is 
"a  dream  that  is  not  all  a  dream." 

A  later  and  almost  intimate  acquaintance  with  my 
fellow-townsman  "has  confirmed  my  interpretation  of 
the  author  of  "Phillip  Strong."  His  personal  efforts 
to  find  out  "what  Jesus  would  do  if  He  lived  in  our 
age";  his  fidelity  as  a  pastor,  a  preacher  and  a 
reformer;  his  activity  and  aggressiveness  on  week- 
days as  on  Sundays;  his  wise  and  winning  way  of 
preaching  the  -gospel  through  his  stories,  which  he 
reads  by  chapters  as  sermons  to  his  Sunday  evening 
congregations;  his  kindergarten  work  in  his  own 
church,  and  in  another  part  of  town  among  the  little 
negroes;  the  impression  made  by  his  own  spiritual 
and  earnest  personality — all  prepare  me  to  read  what 
he  writes  with  the  conviction  ever  present  that  the 
hand  that  writes  these  things  is  moved  by  a  heart  to 
whom  these  things  are  living  verities.  And  I  find  it 
easy  to  say  as  Dr.  Wilkinson  in  his  "Epic  of  Paul," 
makes  Rachel,  Paul's  sister,  say: 

"O,  brother,  when  such  thing's  thou  sayest, 

I  tremble  with  unspeakable  desire 

To  be  what  thou  must  be  to  think  such  things." 

BISHOP  JOHN  H.  VINCENT. 

Episcopal  Residence,  Topeka.  Kansas,  February  1898. 


THE     CRUCIFIXION 

OF 

PHILLIP    STRONG. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PHILLIP  STRONG  could  not  decide  what  it 
was  best  to  do. 

The  postman  that  evening  had  brought  him  two 
letters  and  he  had  just  finished  reading  them.  He 
sat  with  his  hands  clasped  over  his  knee,  leaning 
back  in  his  chair  and  looking  out  through  his  study 
window.  He  was  evidently  thinking  very  hard  and 
the  two  letters  were  the  cause  of  his  perplexity. 

Finally  he  rose,  went  to  his  study  door  and  called 
down  the  stairs,  "  Sarah,  I  wish  you  would  come  up 
here.  I  want  your  help." 

"  All  right,  Phillip,  I  '11  be  up  in  a  minute,"  re- 
sponded a  voice  from  below,  and  very  soon  the 
minister's  wife  came  up-stairs  into  her  husband's 
study. 

"  What 's  the  matter,  Phillip  ?  "  she  said,  as  she 
came  into  the  room.  "  It  must  be  something  very 


8          THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

serious,  for  you  don't  call  me  up  here  unless  you 
are  in  great  distress.  You  remember  the  last  time 
you  called  me,  you  had  shut  the  tassel  of  your 
dressing-gown  under  the  lid  of  your  writing  desk 
and  I  had  to  cut  you  loose.  You  are  n't  fast  any- 
where now,  are  you?" 

Phillip  smiled  quaintly.  "  Yes,  I  am.  I  'm  in  a 
strait  betwixt  two.  Let  me  read  these  letters  and 
you  will  see."  So  he  began  at  once,  and  we  will 
copy  the  letters,  omitting  dates. 

MILTON,  CALVARY  CHURCH. 
REV.  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  At  a  meeting  of  the  Milton  Calvary 
Church  held  last  week,  it  was  voted  unanimously  to 
extend  to  you  a  call  to  become  pastor  of  this  church  at 
a  salary  of  two  thousand  dollars  a  year.  We  trust  that 
you  will  find  it  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  the  Head 
of  the  Church  that  you  accept  this  decision  on  the  part 
of  Calvary  Church  and  become  its  pastor.  The  church 
is  in  good  condition  and  has  the  hearty  support  of  most 
of  the  leading  families  in  the  town.  Both  in  member- 
ship and  financially  it  is  the  strongest  of  the  principal 
churches  here.  We  wait  your  reply,  confidently  hoping 
you  will  decide  to  come  to  us.  We  have  been  without  a 
settled  pastor  now  for  .nearly  a  year,  since  the  death 
of  Dr.  B.,  and  we  have  united  upon  you  as  the  person 
most  eminently  fitted  to  fill  the  pulpit  of  Calvary 
Church.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  be  with  you.  In  behalf 
of  the  Church, 

WILLIAM  WINTER, 

Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 

"What  do  you  think  of  that,  Sarah?"  asked 
Phillip  Strong,  as  he  finished  the  letter. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.        9 

"  Two  thousand  dollars  is  twice  as  much  as  you 
are  getting  now,  Phillip." 

"  What,  you  mercenary  little  creature,  do  you 
think  of  the  salary  first?" 

"  If  I  did  not  think  of  it  once  in  a  while,  I  doubt 
if  you  would  have  a  decent  meal  or  a  good  suit  of 
clothes,"  replied  the  minister's  wife,  looking  at  him 
with  a  smile. 

"  Oh,  well,  that  may  be,  Sarah.  But  let  me  read 
the  other  letter."  He  went  on  without  discussing 
the  salary  matter. 

ELMDALE,  CHAPEL  HILL  CHURCH. 
REV.  PHILLIP  STROM;, 

DEAR  BROTHER,  —  At  a  meeting  of  the  Elmdale 
Chapel  Hill  Church  held  last  week  Thursday  it  was 
unanimously  voted  to  extend  you  a  call  to  become 
pastor  of  the  church  at  a  salary  of  two  thousand  dollars 
a  year,  with  two  months'  vacation,  to  be  selected  at 
your  own  convenience.  The  Chapel  Hill  Church  is  in  a 
prosperous  condition,  and  many  of  the  members  recall 
your  career  in  our  college  with  much  pleasure.  This 
is  an  especially  strong  centre  for  church  work,  the  prox- 
imity of  the  boys'  Academy  and  the  University  making 
the  situation  one  of  great  power  to  a  man  who  thor- 
oughly understands  and  enjoys  young  men  as  we  know 
you  do.  We  most  earnestly  hope  you  will  consider 
this  call,  not  as  purely  formal,  but  as  from  the  hearts  of 
the  people.  We  are,  very  cordially  yours, 
In  behalf  of  the  Church, 

PROFESSOR  WELLMAN, 

Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 

il  The  salary  is  just  the  same,  is  n't  it?  "  said  the 
minister's  wife. 


10       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  Now,  Sarah,"  said  the  minister,  "  if  I  did  n't 
know  what  a  generous  unselfish  heart  you  really 
have,  I  should  get  vexed  at  you  for  talking  about 
the  salary  as  if  that  were  the  most  important 
thing." 

"  The  salary  is  very  important,  though.  But  you 
know,  Phillip,  I  would  be  as  willing  as  you  are  to  live 
on  no  salary  if  the  grocer  and  butcher  would  con- 
tinue to  feed  us  for  nothing.  I  wish  from  the 
bottom  of  my  heart  that  we  could  live  without 
money." 

"  It  is  a  bother,  is  n't  it  ?  "  replied  Phillip,  so 
gravely  that  his  wife  laughed  heartily  at  his  tone. 

"Which  of  the  two  churches  do  you  prefer?" 
asked  his  wife. 

"  I  would  rather  go  to  the  Chapel  Hill  Church  as 
far  as  my  preference  is  concerned." 

"Then  why  not  accept  their  call  if  that  is  the 
way  you  feel?  " 

"  Because  while  I  should  like  to  go  to  Elmdale 
I  feel  as  if  I  ought  to  go  to  Milton." 

"  Now,  Phillip,  I  don't  see  why  in  a  choice  of 
this  kind  you  don't  do  as  you  feel  inclined  to  do, 
and  accept  the  call  that  pleases  you  most.  Why 
should  ministers  always  be  doing  what  they  ought 
instead  of  what  they  like?  You  never  please 
yourself." 

"Well,  Sarah,"  replied  Phillip,  good-naturedly, 
"  this  is  the  way  of  it.  The  church  in  Elmdale  is  in 
a  University  town.  The  atmosphere  of  the  place  is 
scholastic.  You  know  I  passed  four  years  of  student 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      n 

life  there.  With  the  exception  of  the  schools,  there 
are  not  a  thousand  people  in  the  village,  a  quiet, 
sleepy,  dull,  retired,  studious  place.  I  love  the 
memory  of  it.  I  could  go  there  as  the  pastor  of 
the  Elmdale  church  and  preach  to  an  audience  of 
college  boys  eight  months  in  the  year  and  to  about 
eighty  refined,  scholarly,  Christian  people  the  rest 
of  the  time.  I  could  indulge  my  taste  for  reading 
and  writing  and  enjoy  a  quiet  pastorate  there  to  the 
end  of  my  life." 

"  Then,  Phillip,  I  don't  see  why  you  don't  reply 
to  their  call  and  tell  them  you  will  accept ;  and  we 
will  move  at  once  to  Elmdale,  and  live  and  die 
there.  It  is  a  beautiful  place  and  I  am  sure  we 
could  live  very  comfortably  on  the  salary  and  the 
vacation.  There  is  no  vacation  mentioned  in  the 
other  call." 

"  But,  on  the  other  hand,"  continued  the  min- 
ister, almost  as  if  he  were  alone  and  arguing  with 
himself,  and  had  not  heard  his  wife's  words,  "  on 
the  other  hand,  there  is  Milton,  a  manufacturing 
town  of  eighty  thousand  people,  most  of  them  con- 
nected with  the  mills.  It  is  the  centre  of  much 
that  belongs  to  the  stirring  life  of  the  times  in  which 
we  live.  The  labor  question  is  there  in  the  lives  of 
those  operatives.  There  are  very  many  churches  of 
different  denominations,  to  the  best  of  my  knowl- 
edge, all  striving  after  popularity  and  power.  There 
is  much  hard,  stern  work  to  be  done  in  Milton  by  the 
true  Church  of  Christ  to  apply  his  teachings  to  men's 
needs,  and  somehow  I  cannot  help  hearing  a  voice, 


12      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF   PHILLIP  STRONG. 

(  Phillip  Strong,  go  to  Milton  and  work  for  Christ. 
Abandon  your  dream  of  a  parish  where  you  may 
indulge  your  love  of  scholarship  in  the  quiet  atmos- 
phere of  a  University  town,  and  plunge  into  the 
hard,  disagreeable,  but  necessary  work  of  this  age, 
in  the  atmosphere  of  physical  labor,  where  great 
questions  are  being  discussed,  and  the  masses  are 
engrossed  in  the  terrible  struggle  for  liberty  and 
home,  where  physical  life  thrusts  itself  out  into 
society,  trampling  down  the  spiritual  and  intellec- 
tual, and  demanding  of  the  Church  and  the  preacher 
the  fighting  powers  of  giants  of  God  to  restore  in 
men's  souls  a  more  just  proportion  of  the  value  of 
the  life  of  man  on  the  earth.' 

"So  you  see,  Sarah,"  the  minister  went  on  after  a 
little  pause,  "  I  want  to  go  to  Elmdale,  but  the  Lord 
probably  wants  me  to  go  to  Milton." 

Mrs.  Strong  was  silent.  She  had  the  utmost 
faith  in  her  husband  that  he  would  do  exactly  what 
he  knew  he  ought  to  do  when  once  he  decided  what 
it  was.  Phillip  Strong  was  also  silent  a  moment. 
At  last  he  said,  "Don't  you  think  so,  Sarah?" 

"  I  don't  see  how  we  can  always  tell  exactly 
what  the  Lord  wants  us  to  do.  How  can  you  tell 
that  he  does  n't  want  you  to  go  to  Elmdale  and 
become  pastor  of  that  church  ?  " 

"  No  doubt  there  is  a  necessary  work  to  be  done 
there.  The  only  question  is,  am  I  the  one  to  do  it 
or  is*the  call  to  Milton  more  imperative?  The  more 
I  think  of  it,  the  more  I  am  convinced  that  I  must 
go  to  Milton." 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      13 

"  Then,"  said  the  minister's  wife,  rising  suddenly 
and  speaking  with  a  mock  seriousness  that  her  hus- 
band fully  understood,  "  I  don't  see  why  you  called 
me  up  here  to  decide  what  you  had  evidently  settled 
already.  Do  you  consider  that  fair  treatment,  sir? 
It  will  serve  you  right  if  those  biscuits  I  put  in  the 
oven  when  you  called  me,  are  fallen  as  completely 
as  P>abylon.  And  I  will  make  you  eat  half  a  dozen 
of  them,  sir,  to  punish  you.  We  cannot  afford  to 
waste  anything  these  times." 

"  What,"  cried  Philip,  slyly,  "  not  on  two  thou- 
sand dollars  a  year !  But  I  '11  eat  the  biscuits. 
They  can't  possibly  be  any  worse  than  those  we  had 
a  week  after  we  were  married,  —  the  ones  we  bought 
from  the  bakery,  you  remember,"  Phillip  added, 
hastily. 

"You  saved  yourself  just  in  time,  then,"  replied 
the  minister's  wife.  She  came  close  up  to  the  desk 
and  in  a  different  tone  said,  •"  Phillip,  you  know  I 
believe  in  you,  don't  you?" 

"Yes,"  said  Phillip  simply:  "I  am  sure  you  do. 
I  am  impulsive  and  impractical,  but  heart  and  soul, 
and  body  and  mind,  I  simply  want  to  do  the  will  of 
God.  Is  it  not  so?  " 

"  I  know  it  is,"  she  said,  "  and  if  you  go  to  Milton 
it  will  be  because  you  want  to  do  his  will  more  than 
to  please  yourself." 

"  Yes.     Then  shall  I  answer  the  letter  to-night?  " 

"Yes,  if  you  have  decided,  with  my  help,  of 
course." 

"Of  course,   you   foolish  creature,  you   know  1 


14      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

could  not  settle  it  without  you.  And  as  for  the 
biscuits  —  " 

"As  for  the  biscuits,"  said  the  minister's  wife, 
"  they  will  be  settled  without  me  too  if  I  don't  go 
down  and  see  to  them."  She  hurried  downstairs 
and  Phillip  Strong  with  a  smile  and  a  sigh  took  up 
his  pen  and  wrote  replies  to  the  two  calls  he  had 
received,  refusing  the  call  to  Elmdale  and  accepting 
the  one  to  Milton.  And  so  the  strange  story  of  a 
great  hearted  man  really  began. 

When  he  had  finished  writing  these  two  letters 
he  wrote  another,  which  throws  so  much  light  on 
his  character  and  his  purpose  in  going  to  Milton 
that  we  will  insert  it  into  this  story.  This  is  the 
letter :  — 

MY  DEAR  ALFRED,  —  Two  years  ago  when  we  left 
the  Seminary  you  remember  we  promised  each  other  in 
case  either  of  us  left  his  present  parish  he  would  let  the 
other  know  at  once.  I  did  not  suppose  when  I  came 
here  that  I  should  leave  so  soon,  but  I  have  just  written 
a  letter  which  means  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  to  me. 
The  Calvary  Church  in  Milton  has  given  me  a  call,  and 
I  have  accepted  it.  Two  months  ago  my  church  here 
practically  went  out  of  existence  through  a  union  with 
the  other  church  on  the  street.  The  history  of  that 
movement  is  too  long  for  me  to  relate  here,  but  since  it 
took  place  I  have  been  preaching  as  a  supply,  pending 
the  final  settlement  of  affairs,  and  so  I  was  at  liberty  to 
accept  a  call  elsewhere.  I  must  confess  the  call  from 
Milton  was  a  surprise  to  me.  I  have  never  been  there 
(you  know  I  do  not  believe  in  candidating  for  a  place), 
and  so  I  suppose  their  church  committee  came  up  here 
to  listen  to  me.  Two  years  ago  nothing  would  have 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.       15 

induced  me  to  go  to  Milton.  To-day  it  seems  perfectly 
clear  that  the  Lord  says  to  me  "  Go."  You  know  my 
natural  inclination  is  towards  a  quiet  scholarly  pasto- 
rate. Well,  Milton  is,  as  you  know,  a  noisy,  dirty  manu- 
facturing town  full  of  working  men,  cursed  with  saloons, 
and  black  with  coal  smoke  and  unwashed  humanity. 
The  church  is  quite  strong  in  membership.  The  Year 
Book  gives  it  five  hundred  members  last  year,  and  it  is 
composed  almost  entirely  of  the  leading  families  in  the 
place.  What  I  can  do  in  such  a  church  remains  to  be 
seen.  My  predecessor  there,  Dr.  B.,  was  a  profound 
sermonizer,  and  generally  liked,  I  believe.  He  was  a 
man  of  the  old  school  and  made  no  attempt,  I  under- 
stand, to  bring  the  church  into  contact  with  the  masses. 
You  will  say  that  such  a  church  is  a  poor  place  in  which 
to  attempt  a  different  work  I  do  not  think  it  is  neces- 
sarily so.  The  Church  of  Christ  is  in  itself,  I  believe, 
a  powerful  engine  to  set  in  motion  against  all  evil.  I 
have  great  faith  in  the  membership  of  almost  any  church 
in  this  country  to  accomplish  wonderful  things  for 
humanity.  And  I  am  going  to  Milton  with  that  faith 
very  strong  in  me.  I  feel  as  if  a  very  great  work  could 
be  done  there.  Think  of  it,  Alfred !  A  town  of 
eighty  thousand  working-people,  half  of  them  foreigners, 
a  town  with  more  than  one  hundred  saloons  in  full  blast, 
a  town  with  many  churches  of  many  different  denomi- 
nations, the  seven  largest  situated  on  one  street,  and 
that  street  the  most  fashionable  one  in  the  place,  a 
town  where  the  police  records  show  an  amount  of  crime 
and  depravity  almost  unparalleled  in  Municipal  annals, 
—  surely  such  a  place  presents  an  opportunity  for  the 
true  Church  of  Christ  to  do  some  splendid  work.  I 
hope  I  do  not  over-estimate  the  needs  of  the  place.  I 
have  known  the  general  condition  of  things  in  Milton 
ever  since  you  and  I  did  our  summer  work  in  the  neigh- 
boring town  of  Clifton.  If  ever  there  was  missionary 


*6      THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

ground  in  America  it  is  there.  I  cannot  understand 
just  why  the  call  comes  to  me  to  go  to  a  place  and  take 
up  work  that  in  many  ways  is  so  distasteful  to  me.  In 
one  sense  I  shrink  from  it  with  a  sensitiveness  which 
no  one  except  my  wife  and  you  could  understand.  You 
know  what  an  almost  ridiculous  excess  of  sensibility  I 
have.  It  seems  sometimes  impossible  for  me  to  do  the 
work  that  the  active  ministry  of  this  age  demands  of 
a  man.  It  almost  kills  me  to  know  that  I  am  criticised 
for  all  I  say  and  do.  And  yet  I  know  that  the  ministry 
will  always  be  the  target  for  criticism.  I  have  an  almost 
morbid  shrinking  from  the  thought  that  people  do  not 
like  me,  that  I  am  not  loved  by  everybody,  and  yet  I 
know  that  if  I  speak  the  truth  in  my  preaching  and 
speak  it  without  regard  to  consequences,  some  one  is 
sure  to  become  offended,  and  in  the  end  dislike  me.  I 
think  the  good  God  never  made  a  man  with  so  intense 
a  craving  for  the  love  of  his  fellow-men  as  I  possess. 
And  yet  I  am  conscious  that  I  cannot  make  myself 
understood  by  very  many  people  They  will  always  say, 
"  How  cold  and  unapproachable  he  is."  When  in  reality 
I  love  them  with  yearning  of  the  heart  after  them. 
Now,  then,  I  am  going  to  Milton  with  all  this  complex 
thought  of  myself,  and  yet,  dear  chum,  there  is  not  the 
least  doubt  after  all  that  I  ought  to  go.  I  hope  that  in 
the  rush  of  the  work  there  I  shall  be  able  to  forget 
myself.  And  then  the  work  will  stand  out  prominent 
as  it  ought.  With  all  my  doubts  of  myself  I  never 
question  the  wisdom  of  entering  the  ministry  I  have 
a  very  positive  assurance  as  I  work  that  I  am  doing 
what  I  ought  to  do.  And  what  can  a  man  do  more  ? 
I  am  not  dissatisfied  with  the  ministry,  only  with  my 
own  action  within  it.  It  is  the  noblest  of  all  pro- 
fessions ;  I  feel  proud  of  it  every  day.  Only,  it  is 
so  great  that  it  makes  a  man  feel  small  when  he  steps 
inside. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      17 

Well,  my  wife  is  calling  me  down  to  tea.  Let  me 
know  what  you  do.  We  shall  move  to  Milton  next  week, 
probably,  so,  if  you  write,  direct  there.  As  ever,  your 
old  chum, 

PHILLIP  STRONG. 

It  was  characteristic  of  Phillip  that  in  this  letter 
he  said  nothing  about  his  call  to  Elmdale,  and  did 
not  tell  his  college  chum  what  salary  was  offered 
him  by  the  church  at  Milton.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
he  really  forgot  all  about  everything  except  the  one 
important  event  of  his  decision  to  go  to  Milton. 
He  regarded  it,  and  rightly,  as  the  most  serious  step 
of  his  life ;  and  while  he  had  apparently  decided  the 
matter  very  quickly,  his  decision  was,  in  reality,  the 
result  of  a  deep  conviction  that  he  ought  to  go. 
He  was  in  the  habit  of  making  his  decisions  rapidly. 
This  habit  sometimes  led  him  into  embarrassing 
mistakes,  and  once  in  a  great  while  resulted  in 
humiliating  reversals  of  opinion,  so  that  people  who 
did  not  know  him  thought  he  was  irresolute  and 
fickle.  In  the  present  case  Phillip  acted  with  his 
customary  quickness,  and  knew  very  well  that  his 
action  was  unalterable. 

Within  a  week  he  had  moved  to  Milton,  as  the 
church  wished  him  to  occupy  the  pulpit  at  once. 
The  parsonage  was  a  well-planned  house  next  the 
church,  and  his  wife  soon  made  everything  very 
homelike.  The  first  Sunday  evening  after  Phillip 
preached  at  Milton  for  the  first  time,  he  chatted 
with  his  wife  over  the  events  of  the  day  as  they  sat 
before  a  cheerful  open  fire  in  the  large  grate.  It 


1 8       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

was  late  in  the  fall  and  the  nights  were  sharp  and 
frosty. 

"  Are  you  tired  to  night,  Phillip?  "  asked  his  wife. 

"  Yes,  the  day  has  been  rather  tiring.  Did  you 
think  I  was  nervous?  Did  I  preach  as  well  as 
usual?"  Phillip  was  not  vain  in  the  least.  He 
simply  put  the  question  to  satisfy  his  own  exacting 
demand  upon  himself  in  preaching.  And  there  was 
not  a  person  in  the  world  to  whom  he  would  have 
put  such  a  question  except  his  wife. 

"  No,  I  thought  you  did  splendidly.  I  felt  proud 
of  you.  You  made  some  queer  gestures,  and  once 
you  put  one  of  your  hands  in  your  pocket.  But 
your  sermons  were  both  strong  and  effective ;  I  am 
sure  the  people  were  impressed.  It  was  very  still  at 
both  services." 

Phillip  was  silent  a  moment.  And  his  wife  went 
on. 

"  I  am  sure  we  shall  like  this  place,  Phillip ;  what 
do  you  think?" 

"  I  cannot  tell  yet.     There  is  very  much  to  do." 

"  How  do  you  like  the  church  building  ?  " 

"  It  is  an  easy  audience  room  for  my  voice.  I 
don't  like  the  arrangement  of  the  choir  over  the 
front  door.  I  think  the  choir  ought  to  be  down  on 
the  platform  in  front  of  the  people  by  the  side  of 
the  minister." 

"  That 's  one  of  your  hobbies,  Phillip.  But  the 
singing  was  good,  didn't  you  think  so?" 

"  Yes,  the  choir  is  a  good  one.  The  congregation 
does  n't  seem  to  sing  much,  and  I  believe  in  Congre- 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       19 

gational  singing  even  where  there  is  a  choir.  But 
we  can  bring  that  about  in  time,  I  think." 

"  Now,  Phillip,"  said  his  wife,  in  some  alarm, 
"  you  are  not  going  to  meddle  with  the  singing, 
are  you?  You  will  get  into  trouble.  There  is  a 
musical  committee  in  the  church,  and  such  commit- 
tees are  very  sensitive  about  any  interference." 

"Well,"  said  Phillip,  rousing  up  a  little,  "the 
singing  is  a  very  important  part  of  the  religious  ser- 
vice". And  it  seems  to  me  I  ought  to  have  some- 
thing important  to  say  about  it.  But  you  need  not 
fear,  Sarah.  I  'm  not  going  to  try  to  change  every- 
thing all  at  once." 

His  wife  looked  at  him  a  little  anxiously.  She 
had  perfect  faith  in  Phillip's  honesty  of  purpose  but 
she  sometimes  had  a  fear  of  his  impetuous  desire  to 
reform  the  world.  After  a  little  pause  she  spoke 
again,  changing  the  subject. 

"What  did  you  think  of  the  congregation, 
Phillip?" 

"  I  enjoyed  it.  I  thought  it  was  very  attentive. 
There  was  a  larger  number  out  this  evening  than  I 
had  expected." 

"  Did  you  like  the  looks  of  the  people?  " 

"  They  were  all  very  nicely  dressed." 

"  Now,  Phillip,  you  know  that  is  n't  what  I  mean. 
Did  you  like  the  people's  faces?" 

"  You  know  I  like  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men." 

"  Yes,  but  there  are  audiences,  and  audiences. 
Do  you  think  you  will  enjoy  preaching  to  this  one 
in  Calvary  Church?" 


20        THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  I  think  I  shall,"  replied  Phillip,  but  he  said  it  in 
a  tone  that  might  have  meant  a  great  deal  more. 
Again  there  was  silence,  and  again  the  minister's 
wife  was  the  first  to  break  it. 

"There  was  a  place  in  your  sermon  to-night, 
Phillip,  where  you  appeared  the  least  bit  embar- 
rassed ;  as  you  seem  sometimes  at  home  when  you 
have  some  writing  or  some  newspaper  article  on 
your  mind  and  some  one  suddenly  interrupts  you 
with  a  question  far  from  your  thoughts.  What  was 
the  matter?  Did  you  forget  a  point?  " 

"  No,  I  '11  tell  you.  From  where  I  stand  on  the 
pulpit  platform  I  can  see  through  one  of  the  win- 
dows over  the  front  door.  There  is  a  large  electric 
lamp  burning  outside,  and  the  light  fell  directly  on 
the  sidewalk,  across  the  street.  From  time  to  time 
groups  of  people  went  through  that  band  of  light. 
Of  course  I  could  not  see  their  faces  very  well,  but  I 
soon  found  out  that  they  were  mostly  the  young 
men  and  women  operatives  of  the  mills.  They  were 
out  strolling  through  the  street,  which  I  am  told  is  a 
favorite  promenade  with  them.  I  should  think  as 
many  as  two  hundred  passed  by  the  church  while  I 
was  preaching.  Well,  after  awhile  I  began  to  ask  my- 
self whether  there  was  any  possible  way  of  getting 
those  young  people  to  come  into  the  church,  instead  of 
strolling  past?  And  then  I  thought  of  the  people  in 
front  of  me,  and  saw  how  different  they  were  from 
those  outside,  and  wondered  if  it  would  n't  be  better 
to  close  up  the  church  and  go  and  preach  on  the 
street  where  the  people  were.  And  this  carrying  on 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.       21 

of  all  that  questioning  with  myself,  while  I  tried 
to  preach,  caused  a  little  '  embarrassment ',  as  you 
,  kindly  call  it,  in  the  sermon." 

"  I  should  think  so  !  But  how  do  you  know, 
Phillip,  that  those  people  outside  were  in  any  need 
of  your  preaching?  " 

Phillip  appeared  surprised  at  the  question.  He 
looked  at  his  wife,  and  her  face  was  serious. 

"  Why,  do  not  all  people  need  preaching  ?  They 
may  not  stand  in  need  of  my  preaching,  perhaps,  but 
they  ought  to  have  some.  And  I  cannot  help  think- 
ing of  what  is  the  duty  of  the  church  in  this  place,  to 
the  great  crowd  outside.  Something  ought  to  be 
done,  I  know.  And  something  will  be  done  by 
Calvary  Church,  in  time.  I  foresee  the  need  of  an 
immense  amount  of  prayer  and  work.  And  I  need 
very  much  wisdom." 

"Phillip,  I  am  sure  your  work  will  be  blessed, 
don't  you  think  so?" 

"  I  know  it  will,"  replied  Phillip,  with  the  calm 
assurance  of  a  very  positive,  but  spiritually  minded 
man.  He  never  thought  his  Master  was  honored  by 
being  asked  for  small  things,  or  by  men  doubting  the 
power  of  Christianity  to  do  great  things. 

Always  when  he  said  "I"  he  simply  meant,  not 
Phillip  Strong,  but  Christ  in  Phillip  Strong.  To 
deny  the  power  and  worth  of  that  incarnation  was, 
to  his  mind,  not  humility  but  treason. 

The  Sunday  following,  Phillip  made  this  announce- 
ment to  his  people  :  — 

"  Beginning   with   next   Sunday  morning  I  shall 


22       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

give  the  first  of  a  series  of  monthly  talks  on  Christ 
and  Modern  Society.  It  will  be  my  object  in  these 
talks  to  suppose  Christ  himself  as  the  one  speaking 
to  modern  society  on  its  sins,  its  needs  its  opportu- 
nities, its  responsibilities,  its  every- day  life.  I  shall 
try  to  be  entirely  loving  and  just  and  courageous  in 
giving  what  I  believe  Christ  himself  would  give  you 
if  he  were  the  pastor  of  Calvary  Church  in  Milton  to- 
day. So,  during,  these  talks,  I  wish  you  would,  with 
me,  try  to  see  if  you  think  Christ  would  actually  say 
what  I  shall  say  in  his  place.  Or,  rather,  what  he 
would  say  in  my  place.  If  Christ  were  in  Milton  to- 
day, I  believe  he  would  speak  very  plainly,  and  in 
many  cases  he  might  seem  to  be  severe.  But  it 
would  be  for  our  good.  Of  course  I  am  but  human 
in  my  weakness.  I  shall  make  mistakes.  I  shall 
probably  say  things  Christ  would  not  say.  But  al- 
ways going  to  the  source  of  all  true  help,  the  Spirit 
of  Truth,  I  shall,  as  best  a  man  may,  speak  as  I 
truly  believe  Christ  would  if  he  were  your  pastor. 
These  talks  will  be  given  on  the  first  Sunday  of 
every  month.  I  cannot  announce  the  subjects,  for 
they  will  be  chosen  as  the  opportunities  arise." 

During  the  week,  Phillip  spent  several  hours  of 
each  day  in  learning  the  facts  concerning  the  town. 
One  of  the  first  things  he  did  was  to  buy  an  accurate 
map  of  the  place.  He  hung  it  up  on  the  wall  of 
his  study,  and  in  after  days  found  occasion  to  make 
good  use  of  it.  He  spent  his  afternoons  walking 
over  the  town.  He  noted  with  special  interest  and 
earnestness  the  great  brick  mills  by  the  river,  five 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      23 

enormous  structures  with  immense  chimneys  out  of 
which  poured  great  volumes  of  smoke.  Something 
about  the  mills  fascinated  him.  They  seemed  like 
monsters  of  some  sort,  grim,  unfeeling,  but  terrible. 
As  one  walked  by  them  he  seemed  to  feel  the  throb- 
bing of  the  hearts  of  five  living  creatures.  The  un- 
painted  tenements,  ugly  in  their  unfailing  similarity, 
affected  Phillip  with  a  sense  of  something  like  anger. 
He  had  a  keen  and  truthful  taste  in  matters  of  archi- 
tecture, and  those  boxes  of  houses  offended  every 
artistic  and  homelike  feeling  in  him.  Coming  home 
one  day  past  the  tenements  he  found  himself  in  an 
unknown  street,  and  for  the  curiosity  of  it  he  counted 
the  saloons  on  the  street  in  one  block.  There  were 
over  twelve.  There  was  a  policeman  on  the  corner 
as  Phillip  reached  the  crossing,  and  he  inquired  of 
the  officer  if  he  could  tell  him  who  owned  the  prop- 
erty in  the  block  containing  the  saloons. 

"  I  believe  most  of  the  houses  belong  to  Mr. 
Winter,  sir." 

"  Mr.  William  Winter?  "  asked  Phillip. 

"  Yes,  I  think  that 's  his  name.  He  is  the  largest 
owner  in  the  Ocean  Mill  yonder." 

Phillip  thanked  the  man  and  went  on  towards 
home.  "  William  Winter  !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  Is  it 
possible  that  man  will  accept  a  revenue  from  the 
renting  of  his  property  to  these  vestibules  of  hell  ? 
That  man  !  One  of  the  leading  members  in  my 
church  !  Chairman  of  the  board  of  trustees  and  a 
leading  citizen  of  the  place  !  It  does  not  seem 
possible  ! " 


24      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

But  before  the  week  was  out  Phillip  had  found 
out  facts  that  made  his  heart  burn  with  shame  and 
roused  his  indignation.  Property  in  the  town  which 
was  being  used  for  saloons,  gambling-houses,  and  dens 
of  wickedness,  was  owned  in  large  part  by  several  of 
the  most  prominent  members  of  his  church.  There 
was  no  doubt  of  the  fact.  Phillip,  whose  very  nature 
was  frankness  itself,  resolved  to  go  to  these  men  and 
have  a  plain  talk  with  them  about  it.  It  seemed  to 
him  like  a  monstrously  evil  thing  that  a  Christian 
believer,  a  church- member,  should  be  renting  his 
property  to  these  dens  of  vice,  and  taking  the 
money.  He  called  on  Mr.  Winter;  but  he  was  out 
of  town  and  would  not  be  back  until  Saturday  night. 
He  went  to  see  another  member  who  was  a  large 
shareholder  in  one  of  the  mills,  and  a  heavy  property 
owner.  It  was  not  a  pleasant  thing  to  do,  but  Phillip 
boldly  stated  the  precise  reason  for  his  call,  and 
asked  if  it  was  true  that  he  rented  several  houses 
in  a  certain  block  where  saloons  and  gambling- 
houses  were  numerous.  The  man  looked  at  Phillip, 
turned  red,  and  finally  said  it  was  a  fact,  but  none 
of  Phillip's  business. 

"  My  dear  brother,"  said  Phillip,  with  a  sad  but 
kindly  smile,  "  you  cannot  imagine  what  it  costs  me 
to  come  to  you  about  this  matter.  In  one  sense,  it 
may  seem  to  you  like  an  impertinent  meddling  in 
your  business.  In  another  sense,  it  is  only  what  I 
ought  to  do  as  pastor  of  a  church  which  is  dearer  to 
me  than  my  life.  And  I  have  come  to  you  as  a 
brother  in  Christ  to  ask  if  it  seems  to  you  like  a 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      25 

thing  which  Christ  would  approve  that  you,  his  dis- 
ciple, should  allow  the  property  which  has  come  into 
your  hands  that  you  may  use  it.  for  his  glory  and  the 
building  up  of  his  kingdom,  to  be  used  by  the 
agents  of  the  devil  while  you  reap  the  financial  ben- 
efit. Is  it  right,  my  brother?  " 

The  man  to  whom  the  question  was  put  made  the 
usual  excuses,  that  if  he  did  not  rent  to  these  people, 
other  men  would,  that  there  was  no  call  for  the  prop- 
erty for  other  purposes,  and  if  it  were  not  rented  to 
objectionable  people  it  would  lie  empty  at  a  dead 
loss,  and  so  forth.  To  all  of  which  Phillip  opposed 
the  plain  will  of  God,  that  all  a  man  has  should  be 
used  in  clean  and  honest  ways,  and  He  could  never 
sanction  the  getting  of  money  through  such  immoral 
channels.  The  man  was  finally  induced  to  acknowl- 
edge that  it  was  not  just  the  right  thing  to  do,  and 
especially  for  a  church-member.  But,  when  Phillip 
pressed  him  to  give  up  the  whole  iniquitous  revenue, 
and  clear  himself  of  all  connection  with  it,  the  prop- 
erty owner  looked  aghast. 

"  Why,  Mr.  Strong,  do  you  know  what  you  ask  ? 
Two-thirds  of  the  most  regular  part  of  my  income 
is  derived  from  these  rents.  It  is  out  of  the  ques- 
tion for  me  to  give  them  up.  You  are  too  nice  in 
the  matter.  All  the  property  owners  in  Milton  do 
the  same  thing.  There  is  n't  a  man  of  any  means 
in  the  church  who  is  n't  deriving  some  revenue  from 
this  source.  Why,  a  large  part  of  your  salary  is 
paid  from  these  very  rents.  You  will  get  into 
trouble  if  you  try  to  meddle  in  this  matter.  I  don't 


26       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

take  offence.  I  think  you  have  done  your  duty. 
And  I  confess  it  doesn't  seem  exactly  the  thing. 
But,  as  society  is  organized,  I  don't  see  that  we  can 
change  the  matter.  Better  not  try  to  do  anything 
about  it,  Mr.  Strong.  The  church  likes  you,  and  it 
will  support  you  handsomely;  but  men  are  very 
touchy  when  their  private  business  is  meddled 
with." 

Phillip  sat  listening  to  this  speech,  and  his  face 
grew  white,  and  he  clenched  his  hands  tighter  as  the 
man  went  on.  When  he  had  finished,  Phillip  spoke 
in  a  low  voice  : — 

"  Mr.  Bentley,  you  do  not  know  me,  if  you  think 
any  fear  of  the  consequences  will  prevent  my  speak- 
ing to  the  members  of  my  church  on  any  matter 
where  it  seems  to  me  I  ought  to  speak.  In  this 
particular  matter,  I  believe  it  is  not  only  my  right, 
but  my  duty  to  speak.  I  should  be  shamed  before 
my  Lord  and  Master,  if  I  did  not  declare  his  will  in 
regard  to  the  uses  of  property.  This  question 
passes  over  from  one  of  private  business,  with  which 
1  have  no  right  to  meddle,  into  the  domain  of  public 
safety,  where  I  have  a  right  to  demand  that  places 
which  are  fatal  to  the  life  and  morals  of  the  young 
men  and  women  of  the  town,  shall  not  be  encouraged 
and  allowed  to  flourish  through  the  use  of  property 
owned  and  controlled  by  men  of  influence  in  the 
community,  and  especially  by  the  members  of  Christ's 
body  which  he  prayed  might  be  without  spot  or 
wrinkle  or  any  defilement.  My  brother,"  Phillip 
went  on,  after  a  painful  pause, "  before  God,  in  whose 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF   PHILLIP  STRONG.       27 

presence  we  shall  stand  at  last,  am  I  not  right  in  my 
view  of  this  matter?  Would  not  Christ  say  to  you 
just  what  I  am  now  saying?" 

Mr.  Bentley  shrugged  his  shoulders  and  said 
something  about  not  trying  to  mix  up  business  and 
religion.  Phillip  sat  looking  at  the  man,  reading  him 
through  and  through,  his  heart  almost  bursting  in 
him  at  the  thought  of  what  a  man  would  do  for  the 
sake  of  money.  At  last  he  saw  that  he  would  gain 
nothing  by  prolonging  the  argument.  He  rose,  and 
with  the  same  sweet  frankness  which  characterized 
his  opening  of  the  subject,  he  said,  "  Brother,  I  wish 
to  tell  you  that  it  is  my  intention  to  speak  of  this 
matter  next  Sunday,  in  the  first  of  my  talks  on  Christ 
and  Modern  Society.  I  believe  it  is  something  he 
would  talk  about  in  public,  and  I  will  speak  of  it  as 
I  think  he  would." 

"  You  must  do  your  duty,  of  course,  Mr.  Strong," 
replied  Mr.  Bentley,  somewhat  coldly ;  and  Phillip 
went  out,  feeling  as  if  he  had  grappled  with  his  first 
dragon  in  Milton,  and  found  him  to  be  a  very  ugly 
one  and  hard  to  kill.  What  hurt  him  as  much  as 
the  lack  of  spiritual  fineness  of  apprehension  of  evil 
in  his  church-member,  was  the  knowledge  that,  as 
Mr.  Bentley  so  carelessly  put  it,  his  salary  was 
largely  paid  out  of  the  rentals  of  those  vile  abodes. 
He  grew  sick  at  heart  as  he  dwelt  upon  the  disa- 
greeable fact ;  and  as  he  came  back  to  the  parsonage 
and  went  up  to  his  cosey  study,  he  groaned  to  think 
that  it  was  supported  by  the  money  that  men  paid 
for  the  ruin  of  their  souls. 


28       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  And  this,  because  society  is  as  it  is  !  "  he  ex- 
claimed, as  he  buried  his  face  in  his  hands  and 
leaned  his  elbows  on  his  desk,  while  his  cheeks 
flushed  and  his  heart  quivered  at  the  thought  of  the 
filth  and  vileness  the  money  had  seen  and  heard 
which  paid  for  the  very  desk  at  which  he  wrote  his 
sermons. 

But  Phillip  Strong  was  not  one  to  give  way  at  the 
first  feeling  of  seeming  defeat.  Neither  did  he 
harshly  condemn  his  members.  He  wondered  at 
their  lack  of  spiritual  life ;  but,  to  his  credit  be  it 
said,  he  did  not  harshly  condemn.  Only,  as  Sunday 
approached,  he  grew  more  clear  in  his  own  mind  as 
to  his  duty  in  the  matter.  Expediency  whispered  to 
him,  "  Better  wait.  You  have  just  come  here.  The 
people  like  you  now.  To  launch  out  into  a  crusade 
against  this  thing  immediately,  will  only  cause  un- 
pleasant feelings,  and  do  no  good.  There  are  so 
many  of  your  members  involved  that  it  will  certainly 
alienate  their  support,  and  possibly  lead  to  your 
losing  your  place  as  pastor,  if  it  do  not  drive  away 
the  most  influential  members." 

To  all  this  plea  of  expediency  Phillip  replied, 
"  Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan  !  "  He  said  to  him- 
self, he  might  as  well  let  the  people  know  what  he 
was,  at  the  very  first.  It  was  not  necessary  that  he 
should  be  their  pastor,  if  they  would  none  of  him. 
It  was  necessary  that  he  preach  the  truth  boldly. 
The  one  question  he  asked  himself  was,  "Would 
Jesus  Christ,  if  he  were  pastor  of  Calvary  Church 
in  Milton  to-day,  speak  of  the  matter  next  Sunday, 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      29 

and  speak  regardless  of  all  consequences?"  Phillip 
asked  the  question  honestly ;  and,  after  long  prayer 
and  much  communion  with  his  Divine  Master,  he 
said,  "  Yes,  I  believe  he  would."  It  is  possible  that 
he  might  have  gained  his  end  by  working  with  his 
members  in  private.  Another  man  might  have  pur- 
sued that  method,  and  still  have  been  a  courageous, 
true  minister.  But  this  is  the  story  of  Phillip  Strong, 
not  of  another  man,  and  this  is  what  he  did. 

When  Sunday  morning  came,  he  went  into  his 
pulpit  with  the  one  thought  in  mind,  that  he  would 
simply  and  frankly,  in  his  presentation  of  the  subject, 
use  the  language  and  the  spirit  of  his  Master.  He 
had  seen  several  other  property  owners  during  the 
week,  and  his  interviews  were  nearly  all  similar  to 
the  one  with  Mr.  Bentley.  He  had  not  been  able  to 
see  Mr.  William  Winter,  the  chairman  of  the  trustees, 
as  he  had  not  returned  home  until  very  late  Saturday 
night.  Phillip  saw  him  come  into  the  church  that 
morning,  just  as  the  choir  rose  to  sing  the  anthem. 
He  was  a  large,  fine-looking  man.  Phillip  admired 
his  physical  appearance,  as  he  marched  down  the 
aisle  to  his  pew,  which  was  the  third  from  the  front, 
directly  before  the  pulpit. 

When  the  hymn  had  been  sung,  the  offering  taken, 
the  prayer  made,  Phillip  stepped  out  at  one  side  of  the 
pulpit  and  reminded  the  congregation  that,  according 
to  his  announcement  of  a  week  before,  he  would  give 
the  first  of  his  series  of  monthly  talks  on  Christ  and 
Modern  Society.  His  subject  this  morning,  he  said, 
was  "  The  Right  and  Wrong  Uses  of  Property." 


30      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

He  started  out  with  the  statement,  which  he 
claimed  was  verified  everywhere  in  the  word  of  God, 
that  all  property  that  men  acquire  is  really  only  in 
the  nature  of  trust  funds,  which  the  property  holder 
is  in  duty  bound  to  use  as  a  steward.  The  gold  is 
God's.  The  silver  is  God's.  The  cattle  on  a  thou- 
sand hills.  All  land  and  water  privileges  and  all 
the  wealth  of  the  earth  and  of  the  seas  belong 
primarily  to  the  Lord  of  all  the  earth.  When  any 
of  this  property  comes  within  the  control  of  a  man,  he 
is  not  at  liberty  to  use  it  as  if  it  were  his  own,  and 
his  alone,  but  as  God  would  have  him  use  it,  to 
better  the  condition  of  life,  and  make  men  and 
communities  happier  and  more  useful. 

From  this  statement  Phillip  went  on  to  speak  of 
the  common  idea  which  men  had,  that  wealth  and 
houses  and  lands  were  their  own,  to  do  with  as  they 
pleased ;  and  he  showed  what  misery  and  trouble 
had  always  flowed  out  of  this  great  falsehood,  and 
how  nations  and  individuals  were  to-day  in  the 
greatest  distress,  because  of  the  wrong  uses  to  which 
God's  property  was  put  by  men  who  had  control  of 
it.  It  was  easy  then  to  narrow  the  argument  to  the 
condition  of  affairs  in  Milton.  As  he  stepped  from 
the  general  to  the  particular,  and  began  to  speak  of 
the  rental  of  saloons  and  houses  of  gambling  from 
property  owners  in  Milton,  and  then  characterized 
such  a  use  of  God's  property  as  wrong  and  unchris- 
tian, it  was  curious  to  note  the  effect  on  the  congre- 
gation. Men  who  had  been  listening  complacently 
to  Phillip's  eloquent  but  quiet  statements,  as  long  as 


THE    CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      31 

he  confined  himself  to  historical  facts,  suddenly 
became  aware  that  the  tall,  noble-faced,  resolute 
and  loving  young  preacher  up  there  was  talking  right 
at  them ;  and  more  than  one  mill- owner,  merchant, 
real-estate  dealer,  and  even  professional  man,  writhed 
inwardly,  and  nervously  shifted  in  his  cushioned  pew, 
as  Phillip  spoke  in  the  plainest  terms  of  the  terrible 
example  set  the  world  by  the  use  of  property  for 
purposes  which  were  destructive  to  all  true  society, 
and  a  shame  to  civilization  and  Christianity.  Phillip 
controlled  his  voice  and  his  manner  admirably,  but 
he  drove  the  truth  home  and  spared  not.  His  voice 
at  no  time  rose  above  a  quiet  conversational  tone, 
but  it  was  clear,  and  his  utterance  was  distinct. 
The  audience  sat  hushed  in  the  spell  of  a  genuine 
sensation  as  Phillip  went  on;  and  the  sensation 
deepened  when,  at  the  close  of  a  tremendous  sen- 
tence, which  swept  through  the  church  like  a  red- 
hot  flame,  Mr.  Winter  suddenly  arose  in  his  pew, 
passed  out  into  the  aisle,  and  walked  deliberately 
down  and  out  of  the  door.  Phillip  saw  him  and 
knew  the  reason,  but  went  straight  on  with  his 
message,  and  no  one,  not  even  his  anxious  wife,  who 
endured  martyrdom  for  him  that  morning,  could 
detect  any  disturbance  in  Phillip  from  the  mill- 
owner's  contemptuous  withdrawal. 

When  Phillip  closed  with  a  prayer  of  tender 
appeal  that  the  Spirit  of  Truth  would  make  all 
hearts  to  behold  the  truth  as  one  soul,  the  audience 
remained  seated  longer  than  usual,  still  under  the 
influence  of  the  subject,  and  the  morning's  sensa- 


32       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG- 

tional  service.  All  through  the  day  Phillip  felt  a 
certain  strain  on  him,  which  did  not  subside  even 
when  the  evening  service  was  over.  Very  many  of 
the  members,  notably  several  of  the  mothers,  thanked 
him,  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  for  his  morning  message. 
Very  few  of  the  men  talked  with  him.  Mr.  Winter 
did  not  come  out  to  the  evening  service,  although  he 
was  one  of  the  very  few  men  members  who  were 
invariably  present.  Phillip  noted  his  absence  but 
preached  with  his  usual  enthusiasm.  He  thought  a 
larger  number  of  strangers  was  present  than  he  had 
seen  the  Sunday  before.  He  was  very  tired  when 
the  day  was  over. 

The  next  morning,  as  he  was  getting  ready  to  go 
out  for  a  visit  to  one  of  the  mills,  the  bell  rang. 
He  was  near  the  door  and  opened  it.  There  stood 
Mr.  Winter.  "  I  should  like  to  see  you  a  few 
moments,  Mr.  Strong,  if  you  can  spare  the  time," 
said  the  mill- owner,  without  offering  to  take  the 
hand  Phillip  extended. 

"Certainly.  Will  you  come  up  to  my  study?" 
asked  Phillip,  quietly. 

The  two  men  went  upstairs,  and  Phillip  shut  the 
door,  as  he  motioned  Mr.  Winter  to  a  seat,  and  then 
sat  down  opposite. 


CHAPTER  II. 

"T    HAVE  come  to  see  you  about  your  sermon 

JL  of  yesterday  morning,"  began  Mr.  Winter, 
abruptly.  "  I  consider  what  you  said  was  a  direct 
insult  to  me  personally." 

"  Suppose  I  should  say  it  was  not  so  intended," 
replied  Phillip,  with  a  good-natured  smile. 

"  Then  I  should  say  you  lied ! "  retorted  Mr. 
Winter,  sharply. 

Phillip  sat  very  still.  And  the  two  men  eyed  each 
other  in  silence  for  a  moment.  Then  the  minister 
reached  out  his  hand,  and  laid  it  on  the  other's 
arm,  saying  as  he  did  so,  "  My  brother,  you  cer- 
tainly did  not  come  into  my  house  to  accuse  me 
unjustly  of  wronging  you?  I  am  willing  to  talk  the 
matter  over  in  a  friendly  spirit,  but  will  not  listen  to 
personal  abuse." 

There  was  something  in  the  tone  and  manner  of 
this  declaration  that  subdued  the  mill-owner.  He 
was  an  older  man  than  Phillip  by  twenty  years,  but 
a  man  of  quick  and  ungoverned  temper.  He  had 
come  to  see  the  minister  while  in  a  heat  of  passion, 
and  the  way  Phillip  received  him,  the  calmness  and 
dignity  of  his  attitude,  thwarted  his  purpose.  He 
wanted  to  find  a  man  ready  to  quarrel.  Instead,  he 
found  a  man  ready  to  talk  reason.  Mr.  Winter 
3 


34      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

replied,  after  a  pause,  during  which  he  controlled 
himself  by  a  great  effort :  — 

"  I  consider  that  you  purposely  selected  me  as 
guilty  of  conduct  unworthy  a  church-member  and  a 
Christian,  and  made  me  the  target  of  your  remarks 
yesterday.  And  I  wish  to  say  that  such  preaching 
will  never  do  in  Calvary  Church  while  I  am  one  of 
its  members." 

"  Of  course  you  refer  to  the  matter  of  renting 
your  property  to  saloon  men  and  to  halls  for  gam- 
bling and  other  evil  uses,"  said  Phillip,  bluntly. 
"  Are  you  the  only  member  of  Calvary  Church  who 
lets  his  property  for  such  purposes?" 

"  It  is  not  a  preacher's  business  to  pry  into  the 
affairs  of  his  church-members  !  "  replied  Mr.  Winter, 
growing  more  excited  again.  "That  is  what  I 
object  to." 

"  In  the  first  place,  Mr.  Winter,"  said  Phillip, 
steadily,  "  let  us  settle  the  right  and  wrong  of  the 
whole  business.  Is  it  right  for  a  business  man,  a 
Christian  man,  a  church-member,  to  rent  his  prop- 
erty for  saloons  and  vicious  resorts,  where  human 
life  is  ruined?  " 

"  That  is  not  the  question." 

"  What  is?  "  Phillip  asked,  with  his  eyes  wide  open. 

Mr.  Winter  answered  sullenly :  "  The  question 
is  whether  our  business  affairs,  those  of  other  men 
with  me,  are  to  be  dragged  into  the  Sunday  church- 
services,  and  made  the  occasion  of  personal  attacks 
upon  us.  I  for  one  will  not  sit  and  listen  to  any 
such  preaching." 


THE   CRUCIFIXION'  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      35 

"  But  aside  from  the  matter  of  private  business, 
Mr.  Winter,  let  us  settle  whether  what  you  and 
others  are  doing  is  right.  Will  you  let  the  other 
matter  rest  a  moment,  and  tell  me  what  is  the  duty 
of  a  Christian  in  the  use  of  his  property?" 

"  It  is  my  property,  and  if  I  or  my  agent  choose 
to  rent  it  to  another  man  in  a  legal,  business-like 
way,  that  is  my  affair.  I  do  not  recognize  that  you 
have  anything  to  do  with  it." 

"  Not  if  I  am  convinced  that  you  are  doing  what 
is  harmful  to  the  community  and  to  the  church?  " 

"  You  have  no  business  to  meddle  in  our  private 
affairs  !  "  replied  Mr.  Winter,  angrily.  "  And  if  you 
intend  to  pursue  that  method  of  preaching,  I  shall 
withdraw  my  support,  and  most  of  the  influential, 
paying  members  will  follow  my  example." 

It  was  a  cowardly  threat  on  the  part  of  the  excited 
mill-owner,  and  it  roused  Phillip  more  than  if  he  had 
been  physically  slapped  in  the  face.  If  there  was 
anything  in  all  the  world  that  stirred  Phillip  to  his 
oceanic  depths  of  feeling,  it  was  an  intimation  that 
he  was  in  the  ministry  for  pay,  and  so  must  be 
afraid  of  losing  the  support  of  those  members  who 
were  able  to  pay  largely.  He  clenched  his  hands 
around  the  arms  of  his  study-chair  until  his  nails 
bent  on  the  hard  wood.  His  scorn  and  indignation 
burned  in  his  face,  although  his  voice  was  calm 
enough. 

"  Mr.  Winter,  this  whole  affair  is  a  matter  of  the 
most  profound  principle  with  me.  As  long  as  I  live 
I  shall  believe  that  a  Christian  man  has  no  more 


36       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

right  to  rent  his  property  to  a  saloon  than  he  has  to 
run  a  saloon  himself.  And  as  long  as  I  live  I  shall 
also  believe  that  it  is  a  minister's  duty  to  preach  to 
his  church  plainly  upon  matters  which  bear  upon 
the  right  and  wrong  of  life,  no  matter  what  is  involved 
in  those  matters.  Are  money  and  houses  and  lands 
of  such  a  character  that  the  use  of  them  has  no 
bearing  on  moral  questions,  and  is  therefore  to  be 
left  out  of  the  preaching  material  of  the  pulpit?  It 
is  my  conviction  that  the  men  of  property  in  this 
age  have  come  to  regard  their  business  as  separated 
and  removed  from  God  and  all  relation  to  Him. 
The  business  men  of  to-day  do  not  regard  their 
property  as  God's.  They  always  speak  of  it  as  theirs. 
And  they  resent  any  '  interference,'  as  you  call  it,  on 
the  part  of  the  pulpit.  Nevertheless,  I  say  it  plainly, 
I  regard  the  renting  of  these  houses  by  you,  and 
other  business  men  in  the  church,  to  the  whiskey 
men  and  the  corrupters  of  youth  as  wholly  wrong, 
and  so  wrong  that  the  Christian  minister  who  should 
keep  silent  when  he  knew  the  facts  would  be  guilty 
of  unspeakable  cowardice  and  disloyalty  to  his 
Lord.  As  to  your  threat  of  withdrawal  of  support, 
sir,  do  you  suppose  I  would  be  in  the  ministry  if  I 
were  afraid  of  the  rich  men  in  my  congregation? 
It  shows  that  you  are  not  yet  acquainted  with  me. 
It  would  not  hurt  you  to  know  me  better  !  " 

All  the  time  Phillip  was  talking,  his  manner  was 
that  of  dignified  indignation.  His  anger  was  never 
coarse  or  vulgar.  But  when  he  was  roused  as  he 
was  now  he  spoke  with  a  total  disregard  for  all  con- 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      37 

sequences.  For  the  time  being  he  felt  as  perhaps 
one  of  the  old  Hebrew  prophets  used  to  feel  when 
the  flame  of  inspired  wrath  burned  in  his  soul. 

The  man  who  sat  opposite  was  compelled  to  keep 
silent  until  Phillip  had  said  what  he  had  to  say.  It 
was  impossible  for  him  to  interrupt.  Also  it  was 
out  of  the  question  that  a  man  like  Mr.  Winter 
should  understand  a  nature  like  that  of  Phillip  Strong. 
The  mill- owner  sprang  to  his  feet  as  soon  as  Phillip 
finished.  He  was  white  to  the  lips  with  passion,  and 
so  excited  that  his  hands  trembled  and  his  voice 
shook  as  he  replied  to  Phillip  :  — 

"  You  shall  answer  for  these  insults,  sir.  I  with- 
draw my  church  pledge,  and  you  will  see  whether 
the  business  men  in  the  church  will  sustain  such 
preaching."  And  Mr.  Winter  flung  himself  out  of 
the  study  and  downstairs,  forgetting  to  take  his  hat, 
which  he  had  carried  up  with  him.  Phillip  caught 
it  up  and  went  downstairs  with  it,  reaching  the  mill- 
owner  just  as  he  was  going  out  of  the  front  door. 
He  said  simply,  "You  forgot  your  hat,  sir."  Mr. 
Winter  took  it  without  a  word  and  went  out,  slam- 
ming the  door  hard  behind  him. 

Phillip  turned  around,  and  there  stood  his  wife. 
Her  face  was  very  anxious. 

"  Tell  me  all  about  it,  Phillip,"  she  said.  Sunday 
evening  they  had  talked  over  the  fact  of  Mr.  Win- 
ter's walking  out  of  the  church  during  the  service, 
and  had  anticipated  some  trouble.  Phillip  related 
the  facts  of  Mr.  Winter's  visit,  telling  his  wife  what 
the  mill-owner  had  said. 


38       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"What  did  you  say,  Philip,  to  make  him  so 
angry?  Did  you  give  him  a  piece  of  your 
mind?" 

"  I  gave  him  the  whole  of  it,"  replied  Phillip, 
somewhat  grimly,  —  "  at  least  all  of  it  on  that  par- 
ticular subject  that  he  could  stand." 

"  Oh,  dear  !  It  seems  too  bad  to  have  this  trouble 
come  so  soon  !  What  will  Mr.  Winter  do?  He  is 
very  wealthy,  and  influential  in  the  church.  Do  you 
think  —  are  you  sure  you  have  done  just  right,  for 
the  best  in  this  matter,  Phillip  ?  It  is  going  to  be 
very  unpleasant  for  you." 

"Well,  Sarah,  I  would  not  do  otherwise  than  I 
have  done.  What  have  I  done?  I  have  simply 
preached  God's  truth,  as  I  plainly  see  it,  to  my 
church.  And  if  I  do  not  do  that,  what  business 
have  I  in  the  ministry  at  all?  I  regret  this  personal 
encounter  with  Mr.  Winter ;  but  I  don't  see  how  I 
could  have  avoided  it." 

"  Did  you  lose  your  temper?  " 

"No." 

"  There  was  some  very  loud  talking.  I  could  hear 
it  away  out  in  the  kitchen." 

"  Well,  you  know,  Sarah,  the  angrier  I  get  the  less 
inclined  I  feel  to  '  holler.'  It  was  Mr.  Winter  you 
heard.  He  was  very  much  excited  when  he  came, 
and  nothing  that  I  could  conscientiously  say  would 
have  made  any  difference  with  him." 

"  Did  you  ask  him  to  pray  over  the  matter  with 
you?" 

"  No.  I  do  not  think  he  was  in  a  praying 
mood." 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      39 

"Were  you?" 

Phillip  hesitated  a  moment,  and  then  replied 
seriously  :  "  Yes,  I  truly  believe  I  was,  —  that  is, 
I  should  not  have  been  ashamed  at  any  part  of  the 
interview  to  put  myself  into  loving  communion  with 
my  Heavenly  Father." 

Mrs.  Strong  still  looked  disturbed  and  anxious. 
She  was  going  over  in  her  mind  the  probable  result 
of  Mr.  Winter's  antagonism  to  the  minister.  It 
looked  to  her  like  a  very  serious  thing.  Phillip  was 
inclined  to  treat  the  affair  with  a  calm  philosophy, 
based  on  the  knowledge  that  his  conscience  was 
clear  of  all  fault  in  the  matter. 

"What  do  you  suppose  Mr.  Whiter  will  do?" 
Mrs.  Strong  asked. 

"  He  threatened  to  withdraw  his  financial  sup- 
port, and  said  other  paying  members  would  do  the 
same." 

"  Do  you  think  they  will?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  I  should  n't  wonder  if  they 
did." 

"What  will  you  do  then?  It  will  be  dreadful 
to  have  a  disturbance  of  that  kind  in  the  church, 
Phillip ;  it  will  ruin  your  prospects  here.  You  will 
not  be  able  to  work  under  all  that  friction." 

And  the  minister's  wife  suddenly  broke  down  and 
had  a  good  cry ;  while  Phillip  comforted  her,  first 
by  saying  two  or  three  funny  things,  and  secondly 
by  asserting,  with  a  positive  cheerfulness  which  was 
peculiar  to  him  when  he  was  hard  pressed,  that,  even 
if  the  church  withdrew  all  support,  he  could  prob- 


40      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

ably  get  a  job  somewhere  on  a  railroad,  or  in  a 
hotel,  where  there  was  always  a  demand  for  porters 
who  could  walk  up  several  flights  of  stairs  with  a 
good- sized  trunk. 

"  Sometimes  I  almost  think  I  missed  my  calling," 
said  Phillip,  purposely  talking  about  himself  in  order 
to  make  his  wife  come  to  the  defence.  "  I  ought  to 
have  been  a  locomotive  fireman." 

"  The  idea,  Phillip  Strong  !  A  man  who  has  the 
gift  of  reaching  people  with  preaching  the  way 
you  do  ! " 

"  The  way  I  reach  Mr.  Winter,  for  example  !  " 

"  Yes,"  said  his  wife,  "  the  way  you  reach  him. 
Why,  the  very  fact  that  you  made  such  a  man 
angry  is  pretty  good  proof  that  you  reached 
him.  Such  men  are  not  touched  by  any  ordinary 
preaching." 

"  So  you  really  think  I  have  a  little  gift  at  preach- 
ing?" asked  Philip,  slyly. 

"  A  little  gift !  It  is  a  great  deal  more  than  a 
little,  Phillip." 

"Are n't  you  a  little  prejudiced,  Sarah? " 

"  No,  sir.  I  am  the  severest  critic  you  ever  have 
in  the  congregation.  If  you  only  knew  how  nervous 
you  sometimes  make  me  !  —  when  you  get  started  on 
some  exciting  passage  and  make  a  gesture  that  would 
throw  a  stone  image  into  a  fit,  and  then  begin  to 
speak  of  something  in  a  different  way,  like  another 
person,  and  the  first  I  know  I  am  caught  up  and 
hurled  into  the  subject,  and  forget  all  about  you." 

"Thank  you,"  said  Phillip. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      41 

"What  for?"  asked   his  wife,  laughing.     "For 
forgetting  you?" 

"  I  would  rather  be  forgotten  by  you  than  remem- 
bered by  any  one  else,"  replied  Phillip,  gallantly. 
"  And  you  are  such  a  delightful  little  flatterer  that  I 
feel  courage  for  anything  that  may  happen." 

"  It 's  not  flattery ;  it 's  truth,  Phillip.  I  do  be- 
lieve in  you  and  your  work;  and  I  am  only 
anxious  that  you  should  succeed  here.  I  can't  bear 
to  think  of  trouble  in  the  church.  It  would  almost 
kill  me  to  go  through  such  times  as  we  sometimes 
read  about." 

"  We  must  leave  results  with  God.  I  am  sure 
we  are  not  responsible  for  more  than  our  utmost 
doing  and  living  of  necessary  truth."  Phillip  spoke 
courageously. 

"  Then  you  don't  feel  disheartened  by  the  event 
of  this  morning,  Phillip  ?  " 

"  No,  I  don't  know  that  I  do.  I  'm  very  sensi- 
tive, and  I  feel  hurt  at  Mr.  Winter's  threat  of 
withdrawing  financial  support ;  but  I  don't  feel  dis- 
heartened for  the  work.  Why  should  I  ?  Am  I  not 
doing  my  best?  " 

"  I  believe  you  are.  Only,  dear  Phillip,  be  wise. 
Do  not  try  to  reform  everything  in  a  week,  or  ex- 
pect people  to  grow  their  wings  before  they  have 
started  even  the  pinfeathers.  It  is  n't  natural." 

"Well,  I  won't,"  replied  Phillip,  with  a  laugh. 
"Better  trim  your  wings,  Sarah;  they're  dragging 
on  the  floor." 

He   hunted  up   his  hat  (which  was  one  of  the 


42       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG, 

things  Phillip  could  never  find  twice  in  the  same 
place),  kissed  his  wife,  and  went  out  to  make  the 
visit  at  the  mill  which  he  was  getting  ready  to  make 
when  Mr.  Winter  called. 

To  his  surprise,  when  he  went  down  through  the 
business  part  of  the  town,  he  discovered  that  his 
sermon  of  Sunday  had  roused  almost  every  one. 
People  were  talking  about  it  on  the  street,  —  an  al- 
most unheard-of  way  of  treating  sermons  in  Milton. 
When  the  evening  paper  came  out  it  described  in 
sensational  paragraphs  the  Rev.  Mr.  Strong's  attack 
on  the  wealthy  sinners  of  his  own  church,  and  went 
on  to  say  that  the  church  "  was  very  much  wrought 
up  over  the  sermon,  and  would  probably  make  it 
uncomfortable  for  the  reverend  gentleman."  Phillip 
wondered,  as  he  read,  at  the  unusual  stir  made 
because  a  preacher  of  Christ  had  denounced  an 
undoubted  evil. 

"  Is  it,  then,"  he  asked  himself,  "  such  a  remark- 
able piece  of  news  that  a  minister  of  the  gospel  has 
preached  from  his  own  pulpit  against  what  is  with- 
out question  an  unchristian  use  of  property?  What 
is  the  meaning  of  the  pulpit  unless  it  exists  to  preach 
the  Christianity  of  Christ  applied  to  the  uses  of 
property,  as  well  as  to  the  uses  of  time  and  talent? 
Is  it  possible  that  the  public  is  so  little  accustomed 
to  hear  anything  on  this  subject  that  when  they  do 
hear  it  it  is  to  them  of  the  nature  of  sensational 
news?" 

He  pondered  over  these  questions  as  he  quietly 
but  rapidly  went  along  with  his  work  that  week.  He 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      43 

was  conscious  as  the  days  went  on  that  trouble  was 
brewing  for  him.  He  had  met  Mr.  Winter  several 
times  on  the  street,  and  the  mill- owner  had  not 
recognized  him.  This  hurt  him  in  a  way  hard  to 
explain ;  but  his  sensitive  spirit  felt  the  cut  like  a 
lash  on  a  sore  place. 

When  Sunday  came  Phillip  went  into  his  pulpit 
and  faced  the  largest  audience  he  had  yet  seen  in 
Calvary  Church.  As  is  often  the  case,  people  who 
had  heard  of  his  previous  sermon  on  Sunday 
thought  he  would  preach  another  like  it.  Instead 
of  that  he  preached  a  sermon  on  the  love  of  God 
for  the  world.  In  one  way  the  large  audience  was 
disappointed.  It  had  come  to  have  its  love  of 
sensation  fed,  and  Phillip  had  not  given  it  anything 
of  the  kind.  In  another  way  the  audience  was  pro- 
foundly moved  by  the  power  and  sweetness  of  Phillip's 
unfolding  of  the  great  subject.  Men  who  had  not 
been  inside  of  a  church  for  years  went  away  thought- 
fully impressed  with  the  old  truth  of  God's  love,  and 
asked  themselves  what  they  had  done  to  deserve  it, 
—  the  very  thing  that  Phillip  wanted  them  to  ask. 
The  property-owners  in  the  church  who  had  felt 
offended  by  Phillip's  sermon  of  the  Sunday  before 
went  away  from  the  service  acknowledging  that  the 
new  pastor  was  an  eloquent  preacher  and  a  man  of 
large  gifts.  In  the  evening  Phillip  preached  again 
from  the  same  theme,  treating  it  in  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent way.  His  audience  nearly  filled  the  church, 
and  was  evidently  deeply  impressed. 

In  spite  of  all  this,  Phillip  felt  that  a  certain  ele- 


44      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

ment  in  the  church  had  arrayed  itself  against  him. 
Mr.  Winter  did  not  appear  at  either  service.  There 
were  several  other  absences  on  the  part  of  men  who 
had  been  constant  attendants  on  the  Sunday  ser- 
vices. He  felt,  without  hearing  it,  that  a  great  deal 
was  being  said  in  opposition  to  him ;  but,  with  the 
burden  of  it  beginning  to  oppress  him  a  little,  he 
saw  nothing  better  to  do  than  to  go  on  with  his 
work  as  if  nothing  unusual  had  taken  place. 

Pursuing  the  plan  he  had  originally  mapped  out 
when  he  came  to  Milton,  he  spent  much  of  his  time 
in  the  afternoons  studying  the  social  and  civic  life 
of  the  town.  As  the  first  Sunday  of  the  next  month 
drew  near,  when  he  was  to  speak  again  on  the  atti- 
tude of  Christ  in  respect  to  some  practices  of  mod- 
ern society,  he  determined  to  select  the  saloon  as 
one  of  the  prominent  features  of  modern  life  that 
would  naturally  be  noticed  by  Christ,  and  doubtless 
be  denounced  by  him  as  a  great  evil. 

In  his  study  of  the  saloon  question  he  did  a  thing 
which  he  had  never  done  before,  and  then  only  after 
very  much  deliberation  and  prayer.  He  went  into 
the  saloons  themselves  on  different  occasions.  He 
wanted  to  know  from  actual  knowledge  what  sort  of 
places  the  saloons  were.  What  he  saw  after  a  dozen 
visits  to  as  many  different  groggeries  added  fuel  to 
the  flame  of  indignation  that  already  burned  hot  in 
him.  The  sight  of  the  vast  army  of  men  turning 
into  beasts  in  these  dens  created  in  him  a  loathing 
and  a  hatred  of  the  whole  iniquitous  institution  that 
language  failed  to  express.  He  wondered  with  un- 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      45 

speakable  astonishment  in  his  soul  that  a  civilized 
community  in  the  nineteenth  century  would  tolerate 
for  one  moment  the  public  sale  of  an  article  that  led, 
on  the  confession  of  society  itself,  to  countless  crimes 
against  the  law  of  the  land  and  of  God.  His  indig- 
nant astonishment  deepened  yet  more,  if  that  were 
possible,  when  he  found  that  the  license  of  five  hun- 
dred dollars  a  year  for  each  saloon  was  used  by  the 
town  to  support  its  public-school  system.  That,  to 
Phillip's  mind,  was  an  awful  sarcasm  on  Christian 
civilization.  It  seemed  to  him  like  selling  a  man 
poison  according  to  law,  and  then  taking  the  money 
from  the  sale  to  help  the  widow  to  purchase  mourn- 
ing. It  was  fully  as  ghastly  as  that  would  be. 

He  went  to  see  some  of  the  other  ministers,  hop- 
ing to  unite  them  in  a  combined  attack  on  the  saloon 
power.  It  seemed  to  him  that,  if  the  Church  as  a 
whole  entered  the  crusade  against  the  saloon,  it  could 
be  driven  out  even  from  Milton,  where  it  had  been  so 
long  established.  To  his  surprise  he  found  the  other 
churches  unwilling  to  unite  in  a  public  battle  against 
the  whiskey  men.  Several  of  the  ministers  openly 
defended  license  as  the  only  practicable  method  of 
dealing  with  the  saloon.  All  of  them  confessed  it 
was  evil,  and  only  evil,  but  under  the  circumstances 
thought  it  would  do  little  good  to  agitate  the  sub- 
ject. Phillip  came  away  from  several  interviews 
with  the  ministers,  sad  and  sick  at  heart.  He  was 
too  frank  and  open-hearted  himself  to  see,  what 
was  a  fact,  that  some  of  the  other  preachers  were 
jealous  of  his  popularity,  and  had  taken  offence 


46       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

because  Phillip  had  drawn  away  people  from  their 
own  services,  especially  to  his  Sunday  night  meetings. 

He  approached  several  of  the  prominent  men  in 
the  town,  hoping  to  enlist  some  of  them  in  the  fight 
against  the  rum  power.  Here  he  met  with  unex- 
pected opposition,  coming  in  a  form  he  had  not 
anticipated.  One  prominent  citizen  said  :  — 

"  Mr.  Strong,  you  will  ruin  your  chances  here  if 
you  attack  the  saloons  in  this  savage  manner ;  and 
I  '11  tell  you  why :  The  whiskey  men  hold  a  tremen- 
dous influence  in  Milton  in  the  matter  of  political 
power.  The  city  election  comes  off  the  middle  of 
next  month.  The  men  up  for  office  are  dependent 
for  election  on  the  votes  of  the  saloon  men  and 
their  following.  You  will  cut  your  head  off  sure 
if  you  come  out  against  them  in  public.  Why, 

there  's  Mr. ,  and  ,  and  So-and-So  "  (he 

named  half  a  dozen  men)  "  in  your  church  who  are 
up  for  office  in  the  coming  election.  They  can't  be 
elected  without  the  votes  of  the  rummies,  and  they 
know  it.  Better  steer  clear  of  it,  Mr.  Strong.  The 
saloon  has  been  a  regular  thing  in  Milton  for  over 
fifty  years ;  it  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  town  as  the 
churches  or  schools  ;  and  I  tell  you  it  is  a  power  !  " 

"  What !  "  cried  Phillip,  in  unbounded  astonish- 
ment, "  do  you  tell  me,  you,  a  leading  citizen  of  the 
town  of  80,000  immortal  souls,  that  the  saloon  power 
here  has  its  grip  to  this  extent  on  the  civic  and 
social  life  of  the  place,  and  you  are  willing  to  sit 
down  and  let  this  devil  of  crime  and  ruin  throttle 
you,  and  not  raise  a  finger  to  change  or  expel  the 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      47 

monster?  It  is  impossible!  It  is  not  consistent 
with  the  character  of  Christian  America  that  such  a 
state  of  affairs  in  our  political  life  should  be 
endured  ! " 

"  Nevertheless,"  replied  the  business  man,  "  these 
are  the  facts.  And  you  will  simply  dash  your  own 
life  out  against  a  wall  of  solid  rock  if  you  try  to  fight 
this  evil.  You  have  my  warning." 

"  May  I  not  also  have  your  help  !  "  cried  Phillip, 
hungry  in  his  soul  for  companionship  in  the  struggle 
which  he  saw  was  coming. 

"  It  would  ruin  my  business  to  come  out  against 
the  saloon,"  replied  the  man,  frankly. 

"  And  what  is  that?  "  cried  Phillip,  earnestly.  "  It 
has  already  ruined  far  more  that  ought  to  be  dear 
to  you.  Man,  man,  what  are  money  and  business 
compared  with  your  own  flesh  and  blood?  Do  you 
know  where  your  own  son  was  two  nights  ago  ?  In 
one  of  the  vilest  of  the  vile  holes  in  this  city,  which 
you,  a  father,  license  to  another  man  to  destroy  the  life 
of  your  own  child!  I  saw  him  there  myself;  and 
my  heart  ached  for  him  and  you.  Ah,  brother,  for- 
give me  for  wounding  you !  It  is  the  necessary 
truth.  Will  you  join  with  me  to  wipe  out  this  curse 
to  society?  " 

The  merchant  trembled  and  his  lips  quivered  at 
mention  of  his  son,  but  he  replied  :  — 

"  I  cannot  do  what  you  want,  Mr.  Strong.  But 
you  can  count  on  my  sympathy  if  you  make  the 
fight."  And  Phillip  finally  went  away,  his  soul 
tossed  on  a  wave  of  mountain  proportions,  which 


48       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

was  growing  more  and  more  crested  with  foam  and 
wrath  as  the  first  Sunday  of  the  month  drew  near, 
and  he  realized  that  the  battle  was  one  that  he  must 
wage  single-handed  in  a  town  of  eighty  thousand 
people. 

He  was  not  so  destitute  of  support  as  he  thought. 
There  were  many  mothers'  hearts  in  Milton  that  had 
ached  and  prayed  in  agony  long  years  that  the 
Almighty  would  come  with  his  power  and  sweep  the 
curse  away.  But  Phillip  had  not  been  long  enough 
in  Milton  to  know  the  sentiment  of  the  entire 
people.  He  had  so  far  touched  only  the  Church, 
through  its  representative  pulpits,  and  a  few  of  the 
leading  business  men,  and  the  result  had  been  al- 
most to  convince  him  that  very  little  help  could  be 
expected  from  the  public  generally.  He  was 
appalled  to  find  out  what  a  tremendous  hold  the 
whiskey  men  had  on  the  business  and  politics  of  the 
place.  It  was  a  revelation  to  him  of  their  power. 
The  whole  thing  seemed  to  him  like  a  travesty  of 
free  government,  and  a  terrible  commentary  on  the 
boasted  Christianity  of  the  century. 

So  when  he  walked  into  the  pulpit  the  first  Sunday 
of  the  month  he  felt  his  message  burning  in  his 
heart  and  on  his  lips  as  never  before.  It  seemed 
beyond  all  question  that  if  Christ  were  pastor  of 
Calvary  Church  he  would  speak  out  in  plain  denun- 
ciation of  the  whiskey  power.  And  so,  after  the 
opening  part  of  the  service,  Phillip  rose  to  speak, 
facing  an  immense  audience  that  overflowed  the 
galleries  and  invaded  the  pulpit  platform.  Such  a 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      49 

crowd  had  never  been  seen  in  Calvary  Church 
before. 

Phillip  had  not  announced  his  subject,  but  there 
was  an  expectation  on  the  part  of  many  that  he  was 
going  to  denounce  the  "  rummies."  In  the  two 
months  that  Phillip  had  been  preaching  in  Milton  he 
had  attracted  great  attention.  His  audience  this 
morning  represented  a  great  many  different  kinds  of 
people.  Some  came  out  of  curiosity.  Others  came 
because  the  crowd  was  going  that  way.  So  it  hap- 
pened that  Phillip  faced  a  truly  representative  audi- 
ence of  Milton  people.  As  his  eye  swept  over  the 
house  he  saw  four  of  the  six  members  of  his  church 
who  were  up  for  office  at  the  coming  election. 

For  an  hour  Phillip  spoke  as  he  had  never  spoken 
in  all  his  life  before.  His  subject,  the  cause  it 
represented,  the  immense  audience,  the  entire  occa- 
sion caught  him  up  in  a  genuine  burst  of  eloquent 
fury,  and  his  sermon  swept  through  the  house  like  a 
prairie  fire  driven  by  a  high  gale.  At  the  close,  he 
spoke  of  the  power  of  the  Church  compared  with 
that  of  the  saloon,  and  showed  how  easily  it  could 
win  the  victory  against  any  kind  of  evil  if  it  were 
only  united  and  determined. 

"  Men  and  women  of  Milton,  fathers,  mothers, 
and  citizens,"  he  said,  "  this  evil  is  one  which  can- 
not be  driven  out  unless  the  Christian  people  of 
this  place  unite  to  condemn  it,  regardless  of  results. 
It  is  too  firmly  established.  It  has  its  clutch  on 
business,  the  municipal  life,  and  even  the  Church 
itself.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  Church  in  Milton  has 
4 


50       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

been  afraid  to  take  the  right  stand  in  this  matter. 
Members  of  the  churches  have  become  involved  in 
the  terrible  entanglement  of  the  long-established 
rum-power,  until  to-day  you  witness  a  condition  of 
affairs  which  ought  to  stir  the  righteous  indignation 
of  every  citizen  and  father.  What  is  it  you  are  en- 
during ?  An  institution  which  blasts  with  its  poison- 
ous breath  every  soul  that  enters  it,  which  ruins 
young  manhood,  which  kills  more  citizens  in  times 
of  peace  than  the  most  bloody  war  ever  slew  in 
times  of  revolution ;  an  institution  that  has  not  one 
good  thing  to  commend  it;  an  institution  that  is 
established  for  the  open  and  declared  purpose  of 
getting  money  from  the  people  by  the  sale  of  stuff 
that  creates  criminals ;  an  institution  that  robs  the 
honest  working-man  of  his  savings,  and  looks  with 
indifference  on  the  tears  of  the  wife  or  the  sobs  of 
the  mother ;  an  institution  that  never  gives  one  cent 
of  its  enormous  wealth  to  build  churches,  colleges,  or 
homes  for  the  needy;  an  institution  that  has  the 
brand  of  the  murderer,  the  harlot,  and  the  gambler 
burned  into  it  with  a  brand  of  the  Devil's  own  forg- 
ing in  the  furnace  of  his  hottest  hell,  —  this  institu- 
tion so  rules  and  governs  this  town  of  Milton  to-day 
that  honest  citizens  tremble  before  it,  business  men 
dare  not  oppose  it  for  fear  of  losing  money,  church- 
members  fawn  upon  it  in  order  to  gain  place  in 
politics,  and  ministers  of  the  gospel  confront  its 
hideous  insolence,  and  say  nothing !  It  is  high 
time  we  faced  this  monster  of  iniquity  and  drove  it 
out  of  the  stronghold  it  has  occupied  so  long. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      51 

"  I  wish  you  could  have  gone  with  me  this  past 
week  and  witnessed  some  of  the  sights  I  have  seen. 
No  !  I  retract  that  statement.  I  would  not  wish 
that  any  father  or  mother  had  had  the  heartache 
that  I  have  felt  as  I  contemplated  the  ruins  of  young 
lives  crumbling  into  the  decay  of  premature  debility, 
mocking  the  manhood  that  God  gave  them  by  yield- 
ing themselves  slaves  to  their  passions  and  degrading 
themselves  below  the  beasts  that  perish.  What 
have  I  seen  ?  O  ye  fathers  !  O  ye  mothers  !  Do 
you  know  what  is  going  on  in  this  place  of  sixty 
saloons  licensed  by  your  own  act  and  made  legal  by 
your  own  will?  Yes,  madam,  and  you,  sir,  who 
have  covenanted  together  in  the  fellowship  and  dis- 
cipleship  of  the  purest  institution  of  God  on  earth, 
who  have  sat  here  in  front  of  this  pulpit  and  par- 
taken of  the  emblems  which  remind  you  of  your 
Redeemer,  where  are  your  sons,  your  brothers,  your 
lovers,  your  friends?  They  are  not  here  this  morn- 
ing. The  Church  has  not  any  hold  on  them. 
They  are  growing  up  to  disregard  the  duties  of  good 
citizenship.  They  are  walking  down  the  broad 
avenue  of  destruction,  and  what  is  this  town  doing 
to  prevent  it?  I  have  seen  young  men  from  what 
we  call  the  best  homes  in  this  town  reel  in  and  out 
of  gilded  temples  of  evil,  oaths  on  their  lips  and  pas- 
sion in  their  looks,  and  the  cry  of  my  soul  has  gone 
up  to  Almighty  God  that  the  Church  and  the  Home 
might  combine  their  mighty  force  to  drive  the 
whiskey  demon  out  of  our  municipal  life  so  that  we 
might  never  feel  the  curse  again  evermore. 


52       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  I  speak  to  you  to-day  in  the  name  of  my  Lord 
and  Master.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  believe  that 
if  the  Christ  of  God  were  standing  here  this  morn- 
ing he  would  advise  the  licensing  of  this  corruption 
as  the  most  feasible  or  expedient  method  of  dealing 
with  it.  I  cannot  imagine  him  using  the  argument 
that  the  saloon  must  be  licensed  for  the  revenue 
that  may  be  gained  from  it  to  support  the  school 
system.  I  cannot  imagine  Christ  taking  any  other 
position  before  the  whiskey  power  than  that  of  un- 
compromising condemnation.  He  would  say  it  is 
evil  and  only  evil,  and  therefore  to  be  opposed  by 
every  legal  and  moral  restriction  that  society  could 
rear  against  it.  In  his  name,  speaking  as  I  believe 
he  would  speak  if  he  were  here  this  moment,  I  sol- 
emnly declare  the  necessity  on  the  part  of  every  dis- 
ciple of  Christ  in  every  church  in  Milton  of  placing 
himself  decidedly  and  persistently  and  at  once  in 
open  battle  against  the  saloon  until  it  is  destroyed, 
until  its  power  in  business,  politics,  and  society  is  a 
thing  of  the  past,  until  we  have  rid  ourselves  of  the 
foul  viper  which  has  so  many  years  trailed  its  slimy 
folds  through  our  homes  and  our  schools. 

"  Citizens,  Christians,  church-members,  I  call  on 
you  to-day  to  take  arms  against  the  common  foe  of 
all  that  we  hold  dear  in  church,  home,  and  state.  I 
know  there  are  honest  business  men  who  have  long 
writhed  in  secret  at  the  ignominy  of  the  halter  about 
their  necks  by  which  they  have  been  led.  There 
are  citizens  who  have  the  best  interests  of  the  com- 
munity at  heart  who  have  hung  their  heads  in  shame 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      53 

of  American  politics,  seeing  this  brutal  whiskey 
element  dictating  the  government  of  the  town,  and 
parcelling  out  its  patronage  and  managing  its  funds 
and  enormous  stealings  of  the  people's  money.  I 
know  there  are  church-members  who  have  felt  in 
their  hearts  the  deep  shame  of  bowing  the  knee  to 
this  mm  god  in  order  to  make  advancement  in 
political  life.  And  I  call  on  all  these  to-day  to  rise 
with  me  and  begin  a  fight  against  the  entire  saloon 
business  and  whiskey  rule  in  Milton  until  by  the 
help  of  the  Lord  of  hosts  we  have  gotten  us  the 
victory.  Men,  women,  brothers,  sisters  in  the  great 
family  of  God  on  earth,  will  you  sit  tamely  down 
and  worship  the  great  beast  of  this  century  !  Will 
you  not  rather  gird  your  swords  upon  your  thighs 
and  go  out  to  battle  against  this  blasphemous  Phil- 
istine who  has  defied  the  armies  of  the  living  God? 
I  have  spoken  my  message.  Let  us  ask  divine 
wisdom  and  power  to  help  us." 

Phillip's  prayer  was  almost  painful  in  its  intensity 
of  feeling  and  expression.  The  audience  sat  in 
deathly  silence,  and  when  he  pronounced  the  amen 
of  the  benediction  it  was  several  moments  before 
any  one  stirred  to  leave  the  church. 

Phillip  went  home  completely  exhausted  by  his 
effort.  He  had  put  into  his  sermon  all  of  himself 
and  had  called  up  all  his  reserve  power,  —  a  thing 
he  was  not  often  guilty  of  doing,  and  for  which  he 
condemned  himself  on  this  occasion.  But  it  was 
past,  and  he  could  not  recall  it.  He  was  not  con- 
cerned as  to  the  results  of  his  sermon.  He  had 


54      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

long  believed  that  if  he  spoke  the  message  God  gave 
him  he  was  not  to  grow  anxious  over  the  outcome 
of  it. 

But  the  people  of  Milton  were  deeply  stirred  by 
the  address.  They  were  not  accustomed  to  hear 
that  kind  of  preaching.  And  what  was  more,  the 
whiskey  element  was  roused.  It  was  not  accustomed 
to  have  its  authority  attacked  in  that  bold,  almost 
savage  manner.  For  years  its  sway  had  been  un- 
disputed. It  had  insolently  established  itself  in 
power  until  even  those  citizens  who  knew  its  thor- 
oughly evil  character  were  deceived  into  the  belief 
that  nothing  better  than  licensing  it  was  possible. 
The  idea  that  the  saloon  could  be  banished,  re- 
moved, driven  out  altogether,  had  never  before  been 
advocated  in  Milton.  The  conviction  that  it  could 
be  and  ought  to  be  suppressed  had  never  gained 
ground  with  any  number  of  people.  They  had  en- 
dured it  as  a  necessary  evil.  Phillip's  sermon 
therefore  fell  something  like  a  bomb  into  the  whiskey 
camp.  Before  night  the  report  of  the  sermon  had 
spread  all  over  the  town.  The  saloon  men  were 
enraged.  Ordinarily  they  would  have  paid  no  at- 
tention to  anything  a  church  or  a  preacher  might 
say  or  do.  But  Phillip  spoke  from  the  pulpit  of  the 
largest  church  in  Milton.  The  whiskey  men  knew 
that  if  the  large  churches  should  all  unite  to  fight 
them  they  would  make  matters  very  uncomfortable 
for  them  and  in  the  end  probably  drive  them  out. 
Phillip  went  home  that  Sunday  night  after  the  even- 
ing service  with  several  bitter  enemies.  The  whiskey 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      55 

men  constituted  one  element.  Some  of  his  own 
church-members  made  up  another.  He  had  struck 
again  at  the  same  sore  spot  which  he  had  wounded 
the  month  before.  In  his  attack  on  the  saloon  as 
an  institution  he  had  again  necessarily  condemned 
all  those  members  of  his  church  who  rented  prop- 
erty to  the  whiskey  element  or  had  dealings  with 
them  in  business.  Again,  as  a  month  ago,  these 
property  holders  went  from  the  hearing  of  Phillip's 
sermon  angry  that  they  as  well  as  the  saloon  power 
were  under  indictment. 

As  Phillip  entered  on  the  week's  work  after  that 
eventful  sermon  of  the  first  of  the  month  he  began 
to  feel  the  pressure  of  public  feeling  against  him. 
He  began  to  realize  the  bitterness  of  championing  a 
just  cause  alone.  He  felt  the  burden  of  the  com- 
munity's sin  in  the  matter,  and  more  than  once  he 
felt  obliged  to  come  in  from  his  parish  work  and  go 
up  into  his  study  there  to  commune  with  his  Father. 
He  was  growing  old  very  fast  during  those  first  few 
weeks  in  his  new  parish. 

Tuesday  evening  of  that  week  Phillip  had  been 
writing  a  little  while  in  his  study,  where  he  had  gone 
immediately  after  supper.  It  was  nearly  eight  o'clock 
when  he  happened  to  remember  that  he  had  prom- 
ised a  sick  child  in  the  home  of  one  of  his  parish- 
ioners that  he  would  come  and  see  him  that  very 
day. 

He  came  downstairs,  put  on  his  hat  and  over- 
coat, and  told  his  wife  where  he  was  going. 

"  It 's  not  far.  I  shall  be  back  in  about  half  an 
hour,  Sarah." 


56       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

He  went  out,  and  his  wife  held  the  door  open 
until  he  was  down  the  steps.  She  was  just  on 
the  point  of  shutting  the  door  as  Phillip  started 
down  the  walk  of  the  street,  when  a  sharp  report 
rang  out  close  by.  She  screamed  and  flung  the 
door  open  again,  as  by  the  light  of  the  street  lamp 
she  saw  Phillip  stagger  and  then  leap  into  the  street 
toward  an  elm-tree  which  grew  almost  opposite  the 
parsonage.  When  he  was  about  in  the  middle  of  the 
street  the  minister's  wife  was  horrified  to  see  a  man 
step  out  boldly  from  behind  the  tree,  raise  a  gun,  and 
deliberately  fire  at  Phillip  again.  This  time  Phillip 
fell  and  did  not  rise.  His  tall  form  lay  where  the 
rays  of  the  street  lamp  shone  on  it  and  he  had  fallen 
so  that  as  his  arms  stretched  out  there  he  made  the 
figure  of  a  huge  and  prostrate  cross. 


CHAPTER  III. 

A  S  people  waked  up  in  Milton  the  Wednesday 
•*•*•  morning  after  the  shooting  of  Phillip  Strong 
they  grew  conscious  of  the  fact,  as  the  news  came  to 
their  knowledge,  that  they  had  been  nursing  for  fifty 
years  one  of  the  most  brutal  and  cowardly  institu- 
tions on  earth,  and  licensing  it  to  do  the  very  thing 
which  at  last  it  had  done.  For  the  time  being  Mil- 
ton suffered  a  genuine  shock.  Long  pent-up  feeling 
against  the  whiskey  power  burst  out,  and  public  sen- 
timent for  once  condemned  the  source  of  the  cow- 
ardly attempt  to  murder. 

Various  rumors  were  flying  about.  It  was  said 
that  Mr.  Strong  had  been  stabbed  in  the  back  while 
out  making  parish  calls  in  company  with  his  wife, 
and  that  she  had  been  wounded  by  a  pistol-shot 
herself.  It  was  also  said  that  Phillip  had  been  shot 
through  the  heart  and  instantly  killed.  But  all  these 
confused  reports  were  finally  set  at  rest  when  those 
calling  at  the  parsonage  brought  away  the  exact 
truth. 

The  first  shot  fired  by  the  man  from  behind  the 
tree  struck  Phillip  in  the  knee  but  the  ball  glanced 
off.  Phillip  felt  the  blow  and  staggered,  but  his  next 
impulse  was  to  rush  in  the  direction  of  the  sound 
and  disarm  his  assailant.  That  was  the  reason  he 


58       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

had  leaped  into  the  street.  But  the  second  shot 
was  better  aimed  and  the  bullet  crashed  into  his 
upper  arm  and  shoulder,  shattering  the  bone  and 
producing  an  exceedingly  painful  though  not  fatal 
wound. 

The  shock  caused  Phillip  to  fall  as  if  dead,  and  he 
fainted  away,  but  not  before  the  face  of  the  man  who 
had  shot  him  was  clearly  stamped  on  his  mind.  He 
knew  that  he  was  one  of  the  saloon  proprietors 
whose  establishment  Phillip  had  visited  the  week 
before.  He  was  a  man  with  a  hare-lip,  and  there 
was  no  mistaking  his  countenance. 

When  the  people  of  Milton  learned  that  Phillip 
was  not  fatally  wounded  their  excitement  cooled  a 
little.  A  wave  of  indignation,  however,  swept  over 
the  town  when  it  was  learned  that  the  would-be 
murderer  was  recognized  by  the  minister,  and  it  was 
rumored  that  he  had  openly  threatened  that  he 
would  "fix  the  cursed  preacher  so  that  he  would 
not  be  able  to  preach  again." 

Phillip,  however,  felt  more  full  of  fight  against 
the  great  rum-devil  than  ever.  As  he  lay  on  the 
bed  the  morning  after  the  shooting  he  had  nothing 
to  regret  or  fear.  The  surgeon  had  been  called  at 
once,  as  soon  as  his  wife  and  the  alarmed  neighbors 
had  been  able  to  carry  him  into  the  parsonage. 
The  ball  had  been  removed  and  the  wounds  dressed. 
By  noon  Phillip  had  recovered  somewhat  from  the 
effects  of  the  operation  and  was  resting,  although 
very  weak  from  the  shock  and  suffering  considerable 
pain. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      59 

"What  is  that  stain  on  the  floor,  Sarah?"  he 
asked  as  his  wife  came  in  with  some  article  for  his 
comfort.  Phillip  lay  where  he  could  see  into  the 
other  room. 

"  It  is  your  blood,  Phillip,"  replied  his  wife,  with  a 
shudder.  "  It  flowed  like  a  stream  from  your  shoul- 
der as  we  carried  you  in  last  night.  O  Phillip,  it  is 
dreadful !  It  seems  to  me  like  an  awful  nightmare. 
Let  us  move  away  from  this  terrible  place.  You 
will  be  killed  if  we  stay  here  ! " 

"  There  is  n't  much  danger  if  the  rest  of '  em  are 
as  poor  shots  as  this  fellow,"  replied  Phillip.  "  Now, 
little  woman,"  he  went  on  cheerfully,  "  don't  worry. 
I  don't  believe  they  '11  try  it  again." 

Mrs.  Strong  controlled  herself.  She  did  not 
want  to  break  down  while  Phillip  was  in  his  present 
condition. 

"You  must  not  talk,"  she  said  as  she  smoothed 
his  hair  back  from  the  pale  forehead. 

"That's  pretty  hard  on  a  preacher,  don't  you 
think,  Sarah?  My  occupation  is  gone  if  I  can't 
talk." 

"  Then  I  '11  talk  for  two.  They  say  that  most 
women  can  do  it." 

"  Will  you  preach  for  me  next  Sunday  ?  " 

"  What,  and  make  myself  a  target  for  saloon-keep- 
ers ?  No,  thank  you.  I  have  half  a  mind  to  forbid 
your  ever  preaching  again.  It  will  be  the  death  of 
you." 

"  It  is  the  life  of  me,  Sarah.  I  would  not  ask  any- 
thing better  than  to  die  with  the  armor  on,  fighting 


60      THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

evil.  Well,  all  right.  I  won't  talk  any  more.  I 
suppose  there 's  no  objection  to  my  thinking  a 
little?" 

"Thinking  is  the  worst  thing  you  can  do.  You 
just  want  to  lie  there  and  do  nothing  but  get 
well." 

"All  right.  I'll  quit  everything  except  eating 
and  sleeping.  Put  up  a  little  placard  on  the  head 
of  the  bed  saying,  '  Biggest  curiosity  in  Milton  !  A 
live  minister  who  has  stopped  thinking  and  talking  ! 
Admission  ten  cents.  Proceeds  to  be  devoted  to 
teach  saloon-keepers  how  to  shoot  straight.  "  Phil- 
lip was  still  somewhat  under  the  influence  of  the 
doctor's  anaesthetic,  and  as  he  faintly  murmured  this 
absurd  sentence  he  fell  into  a  slumber  which  lasted 
several  hours,  from  which  he  awoke  very  feeble,  and 
realizing  that  he  would  be  confined  to  the  house 
several  weeks,  but  feeling  in  good  spirits  and  thank- 
ful out  of  the  depths  of  his  vigorous  nature  that  he 
was  still  spared  to  do  God's  will  on  earth. 

The  next  day  he  felt  strong  enough  to  receive  a 
few  visitors.  Among  them  was  the  chief  of  police, 
who  came  to  inquire  concerning  the  identity  of  the 
man  who  had  done  the  shooting.  Phillip  showed 
some  reluctance  to  witness  against  his  enemy.  It 
was  only  when  he  remembered  that  he  owed  a  duty 
to  society  as  well  as  to  himself  that  he  described  the 
man  and  related  minutely  the  entire  affair  exactly  as 
it  occurred. 

"  Is  the  man  in  town?  "  asked  Phillip.  "  Has  he 
not  fled?" 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      6 1 

"  I  think  I  know  where  he  is,"  replied  the  officer. 
"  He  is  hiding,  but  I  can  find  him.  In  fact  we  have 
been  hunting  for  him  since  the  shooting.  He  is 
wanted  on  several  other  charges." 

Phillip  was  pondering  something  in  silence.  At 
last  he  said  :  — 

"  When  you  have  arrested  him  I  wish  you  would 
bring  him  here  if  it  can  be  done  without  violating 
any  ordinance  or  statute." 

The  officer  stared  at  the  request,  and  the  minis- 
ter's wife  exclaimed,  "  Phillip,  you  will  not  have  that 
man  come  into  the  house  !  Besides,  you  are  not 
well  enough  to  endure  a  meeting  with  the  wretch  !  " 

"  Sarah,  I  have  a  good  reason  for  it.  Really,  I 
am  well  enough.  You  will  bring  him,  won't  you? 
I  do  not  wish  to  make  any  mistake  in  the  matter. 
Before  the  man  is  really  confined  under  a  criminal 
charge  of  attempt  to  murder  I  should  like  to  con- 
front him  here.  There  can  be  no  objection  to  that, 
can  there?" 

The  officer  finally  promised  that,  if  he  could  do 
so  without  attracting  too  much  attention,  he  would 
comply  with  Phillip's  request.  It  was  a  thing  he 
had  never  done  before ;  he  was  not  quite  easy  in  his 
mind  about  it.  Nevertheless,  Phillip  exercised  a 
winning  influence  over  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men,  and  he  felt  quite  sure  that,  if  the  officer  could 
arrest  his  man  quietly,  he  would  bring  him  to  the 
parsonage. 

This  was  Thursday  night.  The  next  evening,  just 
after  dark,  the  bell  rang,  and  one  of  the  church-^ 


62      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

members  who  had  been  staying  with  Mrs.  Strong 
during  the  day  went  to  the  door.  There  stood  two 
men.  One  of  them  was  the  chief  of  police.  He 
inquired  how  the  minister  was,  and  said  that  he  had 
a  man  with  him  whom  the  minister  was  anxious  to 
see. 

Phillip  heard  them  talking,  and  guessed  who  they 
were.  He  sent  his  wife  out  to  have  the  men  come 
in.  The  officer  with  his  man  came  into  the  bed- 
room where  Phillip  lay,  still  weak  and  suffering,  but 
at  his  request  propped  up  a  little  with  pillows. 

"  Well,  Mr.  Strong,  I  have  got  the  man,  and  here 
he  is,"  said  the  officer,  wondering  what  Phillip  could 
want  of  him.  "  I  ran  him  down  in  the  '  crow's 
nest '  below  the  mills,  and  we  popped  him  into  a 
hack  and  drove  right  up  here  with  him.  And  a 
pretty  sweet  specimen  he  is,  I  can  tell  you  !  Take 
off  your  hat  and  let  the  gentleman  have  another 
look  at  the  brave  chap  who  fired  at  him  in 
ambush  !  " 

The  officer  spoke  almost  brutally,  forgetting  for  a 
moment  that  the  prisoner's  hands  were  manacled ; 
remembering  it  the  next  instant,  he  pulled  off  the 
man's  hat,  while  Phillip  looked  calmly  at  the  fea- 
tures. Yes,  it  was  the  same  hideous,  brutal  face, 
with  the  hare-lip,  which  had  shown  up  in  the  rays  of 
the  street-lamp  that  night ;  there  was  no  mistaking 
it  for  any  other. 

"  Why  did  you  want  to  kill  me?"  asked  Phillip, 
after  a  significant  pause.  "  I  never  did  you  any 
harm." 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      63 

"  I  would  like  to  kill  all  the  cursed  preachers," 
replied  the  man,  hoarsely. 

"  You  confess,  then,  that  you  are  the  man  who 
fired  at  me,  do  you  ?  " 

"  I  don't  confess  anything.  What  do  you  want  to 
talk  to  me  for?  Take  me  to  the  lock-up  if  you  're 
going  to  ! "  the  man  exclaimed  fiercely,  turning  to 
the  officer. 

"  Phillip  !  "  cried  his  wife,  turning  to  him  with  a 
gesture  of  appeal,  "  send  them  away.  It  will  do  no 
good  to  talk  to  this  man." 

Phillip  raised  his  left  hand  in  a  gesture  toward 
the  man  that  made  every  one  in  the  room  feel  a 
little  awed.  The  officer  in  speaking  of  it  afterward 
said  :  "  I  tell  you,  boys,  I  never  felt  quite  the  same, 
except  once,  when  the  old  Catholic  priest  stepped 
up  on  the  platform  with  old  man  Gower  time  he 
was  hanged  at  Millville.  Somehow  then  I  felt  as 
if,  when  the  priest  raised  his  hand  and  began  to  say 
his  prayer,  maybe  we  might  all  be  glad  to  have  some 
one  pray  for  us  if  we  got  into  a  tight  place." 

Phillip  spoke  directly  to  the  man,  whose  look  fell 
beneath  that  of  the  minister. 

"  You  know  well  enough  that  you  are  the  man  who 
shot  me  Tuesday  night.  I  know  you  are  the  man,  for 
I  saw  your  face  very  plainly  by  the  light  of  the  street 
lamp.  Now,  all  that  I  wanted  to  see  you  here  for 
before  you  were  taken  to  jail  was  to  let  you  know 
that  I  do  not  bear  any  hatred  against  you.  The 
act  you  have  committed  is  against  the  law  of  God 
and  man.  The  injury  you  have  inflicted  against  me 


64       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

is  very  slight  compared  with  that  against  your  own 
soul.  O  my  brother  man,  why  should  you  try  to 
harm  me  because  I  denounced  your  business?  Do 
you  not  know  in  your  heart  of  hearts  that  the  saloon 
is  so  evil  in  its  effects  that  a  man  who  loves  his  home 
and  his  country  must  speak  out  against  it?  And 
yet  I  love  you;  that  is  possible  because  you  are 
human.  O  my  Father,"  Phillip  continued,  changing 
his  appeal  to  the  man,  by  an  almost  natural  manner, 
into  a  petition  to  the  Infinite,  "  make  this  soul,  dear 
to  thee,  to  behold  thy  love  for  him,  and  make  him 
see  that  it  is  not  against  me,  a  man  merely,  that  he 
has  sinned,  but  against  thyself,  —  against  thy  purity 
and  holiness  and  affection.  O  my  God,  thou  who 
didst  come  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  man  to  seek  and 
save  that  which  was  lost,  stretch  out  the  arms  of  thy 
salvation  now  to  this  child  and  save  him  from  him- 
self, from  his  own  disbelief,  or  hatred  of  me,  or  of 
what  I  have  said.  Thou  art  all-merciful  and  all- 
loving.  We  leave  all  souls  of  men  in  the  protecting, 
enfolding  embrace  of  thy  boundless  compassion,  of 
infinite  grace." 

There  was  a  moment  of  entire  quiet  in  the  room, 
and  then  Phillip  said  faintly :  "  Sarah,  I  cannot  say 
more.  Only  tell  the  man  I  bear  him  no  hatred,  and 
commend  him  to  the  love  of  God." 

Mrs.  Strong  was  alarmed  at  Phillip's  appearance. 
The  scene  had  been  too  much  for  his  strength.  She 
hastily  commanded  the  officer  to  take  his  prisoner 
away,  and  with  the  help  of  her  friend  cared  for  the 
minister,  who  after  the  first  faintness  rallied,  and  then 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      65 

gradually  sank  into  sleep  that  proved  more  refresh- 
ing than  any  he  had  yet  enjoyed  since  the  night  of 
the  shooting. 

The  next  day  found  Phillip  improving  more  rap- 
idly than  Mrs.  Strong  had  thought  possible.  She 
forbade  him  the  sight  of  all  callers,  however,  and 
insisted  that  he  must  keep  quiet.  His  wounds  were 
healing  satisfactorily,  and  when  the  surgeon  called, 
he  expressed  himself  much  pleased  with  his  patient's 
appearance. 

"  Say,  doctor,  do  you  really  think  it  would  set  me 
back  any  to  think  a  little  ?  " 

"  No.  I  never  heard  of  thinking  hurting  most 
people;  I  have  generally  considered  it  a  healthy 
habit." 

"  The  reason  I  asked,"  continued  Phillip,  gravely, 
u  was  that  my  wife  absolutely  forbade  it,  and  I  was 
wondering  how  long  I  could  keep  it  up  and  fool 
anybody." 

"  That 's  a  specimen  of  his  stubbornness,  doctor," 
said  the  minister's  wife,  smilingly.  "Why,  only  a 
few  minutes  before  you  came  in  he  was  insisting 
that  he  could  preach  to-morrow.  Think  of  that !  — 
a  man  with  a  shattered  shoulder,  who  would  have  to 
stand  on  one  leg  and  do  all  his  gesturing  with  his 
left  hand  !  a  man  who  can't  preach  without  the  use 
of  seven  or  eight  arms,  and  as  many  pockets,  and 
has  to  walk  up  and  down  the  platform  like  a  lion 
when  he  gets  started  in  on  his  delivery  !  And  yet  he 
wants  to  preach  to-morrow  !  He  's  so  stubborn  that 
I  don't  know  that  I  can  keep  him  at  home.  You 
5 


66       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

had  better  leave  some  powders  to  put  him  to  sleep, 
and  we  will  keep  him  in  a  state  of  unconsciousness 
until  Monday  morning." 

"  Now,  doctor,  just  listen  to  me  a  while.  Mrs. 
Strong  is  talking  for  two  women,  as  she  agreed  to 
do,  and  that  puts  me  in  a  hard  position.  But  I 
want  to  know  how  soon  I  can  get  to  work  again." 

"  You  will  have  to  lie  there  a  month,"  said  the 
doctor,  bluntly. 

"  Impossible !  I  never  lay  that  time  in  my 
life  !  "  said  Phillip,  soberly. 

"  It  would  serve  him  right  to  perform  a  surgi- 
cal operation  on  him  for  that,  would  n't  it,  Mrs. 
Strong?"  the  surgeon  appealed  to  her. 

"  I  think  he  deserves  the  worst  you  can  do, 
doctor." 

"  But  say,  dear  people,  I  can't  stay  here  a  month. 
I  must  be  about  my  Master's  business.  What  will 
the  church  do  for  supplies?  " 

"  Don't  worry,  Phillip.  The  church  will  take  care 
of  that." 

But  Phillip  was  already  eager  to  get  to  work. 
Only  the  assurance  of  the  surgeon  that  he  might 
possibly  get  out  in  a  little  over  three  weeks  satisfied 
him.  Sunday  came  and  passed.  Some  one  from  a 
neighboring  town  who  happened  to  be  visiting  in 
Milton  occupied  the  pulpit,  and  Phillip  had  a  quiet, 
restful  day.  He  started  in  with  the  week  deter- 
mined to  beat  the  doctor's  time  for  recovery ;  and 
having  a  remarkably  strong  constitution  and  a  tre- 
mendous will,  he  bade  fair  to  be  limping  about  the 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       67 

house  in  two  weeks.  His  shoulder  wound  healed 
very  fast.  His  knee  bothered  him  and  it  seemed 
likely  that  he  would  go  lame  for  a  long  time.  But 
he  was  not  concerned  about  that  if  only  he  could  go 
about  in  any  sort  of  fashion  once  more. 

Wednesday  of  that  week  he  was  surprised  in  an 
unexpected  manner  by  an  event  which  did  more 
than  anything  else  to  hasten  his  recovery.  He  was 
still  confined  to  bed  downstairs  when  in  the  after- 
noon the  bell  rang,  and  Mrs.  Strong  went  to  the 
door  supposing  it  was  one  of  the  church  people 
come  to  inquire  about  the  minister.  She  found 
instead  Alfred  Burke,  Phillip's  old  college  chum  and 
Seminary  classmate.  And  in  answer  to  his  eager 
inquiry  concerning  Phillip's  condition  Mrs.  Strong 
welcomed  him  heartily,  as  she  brought  him  into 
Phillip's  room,  knowing  her  patient  quite  well 
enough  to  feel  sure  the  sight  of  his  old  chum  would 
do  him  more  good  than  harm.  The  first  thing  that 
Alfred  said  was  :  — 

"  Old  man,  I  hardly  expected  to  see  you  again 
this  side  of  heaven.  How  does  it  happen  that  you 
are  alive  here  after  all  the  times  the  papers  had  you 
killed?" 

"  Bad  marksmanship,  principally.  I  used  to  think 
I  was  a  big  man.  But  after  the  shooting  I  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  I  must  be  rather  small." 

"  Your  heart  is  so  big  it 's  a  wonder  to  me  that 
you  were  n't  shot  through  it,  no  matter  where  you 
were  hit.  But  I  tell  you  it  seems  good  to  see  you 
in  the  flesh  once  more." 


68       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  Why  did  n't  you  come  and  preach  for  me  last 
Sunday?  "  said  Phillip,  quizzically. 

"  Why,  have  n't  you  heard  ?  I  did  not  get  news 
of  this  affair  until  last  Saturday  in  my  far  Western 
parish,  and  I  was  just  in  the  throes  of  packing  up  to 
come  on  to  Elmdale." 

"Elmdale?" 

"  Yes,  I  've  had  a  call  there.  So  we  shall  be 
near  neighbors.  Mrs.  Burke  is  up  there  now  get- 
ting the  house  straightened  out,  and  I  came  right  off 
down  here." 

"  So  you  are  pastor  of  the  Chapel  Hill  Church  ? 
It 's  a  splendid  opening  for  a  young  preacher. 
Congratulations,  Alfred." 

"  Thank  you,  Phillip.  By  the  way,  I  saw  by  the 
paper  that  you  had  declined  a  call  to  Elmdale,  so 
I  suppose  they  pitched  on  me  for  a  second  choice. 
You  never  wrote  me  of  their  call  to  you,"  he  said,  a 
little  reproachfully. 

"  It  did  n't  occur  to  me,"  replied  Phillip,  truth- 
fully. "But  how  are  you  going  to  like  it?  Isn't 
it  rather  a  dull  old  place? " 

"  Yes,  I  suspect  it  is,  compared  with  Milton.  I 
suppose  you  couldn't  live  without  the  excitement 
of  dodging  assassins  and  murderers  every  time  you 
go  out  to  prayer  meeting  or  parish  calls.  How  do 
you  like  your  work  so  far?  " 

"  There  is  plenty  of  it,"  answered  Phillip,  gravely. 
"  A  minister  must  be  made  of  cast-iron  and  fire- 
brick in  order  to  stand  the  wear  and  tear  of  these 
times  in  which  we  live.  I  'd  like  a  week  to  trade 
ideas  with  you  and  talk  over  the  work,  Alfred." 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      69 

"You  'd  get  the  worst  of  the  bargain." 

"  I  don't  know  about  that.  I  'm  not  doing  any- 
thing lately.  But  say,  we  're  going  to  be  only  fifty 
miles  apart ;  what 's  to  hinder  an  exchange  once 
in  a  while?" 

"I'm  agreeable  to  that,"  replied  Phillip's  chum ; 
"  on  condition,  however,  that  you  furnish  me  with 
a  gun  and  pay  all  surgeons'  bills  when  I  occupy 
your  pulpit." 

"  Done,"  said  Phillip,  with  a  grin  ;  and  just  then 
Mrs.  Strong  forbade  any  more  talk.  Alfred  stayed 
until  the  evening  train  and  when  he  left  he  stooped 
down  and  kissed  Phillip's  cheek.  "  It 's  a  custom 
we  learned  when  we  were  in  the  German  univer- 
sities together  that  summer  after  college,  you  know," 
he  explained  with  the  slightest  possible  blush,  when 
Mrs.  Strong  came  in  and  caught  him  in  the  act. 
It  seemed  to  her,  however,  like  an  affecting  thing 
that  two  big,  grown-up  men  like  her  husband  and 
his  old  chum  showed  such  tender  affection  for  each 
other.  The  love  of  men  for  men  in  the  strong 
friendship  of  school  and  college  life  is  one  of  the 
marks  of  human  divinity. 

In  spite  of  his  determination  to  get  out  and 
occupy  his  pulpit  the  first  Sunday  of  the  next 
month,  Phillip  was  reluctantly  obliged  to  let  five 
Sundays  go  by  before  he  was  able  to  preach.  Dur- 
ing those  six  weeks  his  attention  was  called  to  a 
subject  which  he  felt  ought  to  be  made  the  theme 
of  one  of  his  talks  on  Christ  and  Modern  Society. 
The  leisure  which  he  had  for  reading  opened  his 


70       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  Sabbath  in  Milton  was  ter- 
ribly desecrated.  Shops  of  all  kinds  stood  wide 
open.  Excursion  trains  ran  into  the  large  city 
forty  miles  away,  two  theatres  were  always  running 
with  some  variety  show,  and  the  saloons,  in  violation 
of  an  ordinance  forbidding  it,  unblushingly  flung 
their  doors  open  and  did  more  business  on  that  day 
than  any  other.  As  Phillip  read  the  papers  he 
noticed  that  every  Monday  morning  the  police  court 
was  more  crowded  with  "  drunks  "  and  "  disorder- 
lies "  than  on  any  other  day  in  the  week,  and  the 
plain  cause  of  it  was  the  abuse  of  the  day  before. 
In  the  summer  time  base-ball  games  were  played 
in  Milton  on  Sunday.  In  the  fall  and  winter  very 
many  people  spent  their  evenings  in  card-playing  or 
aimlessly  strolling  up  and  down  the  main  street. 
These  facts  came  to  Phillip's  knowledge  gradually, 
and  he  was  not  long  in  making  up  his  mind  that 
Christ  would  not  keep  silent  before  the  facts.  So 
he  carefully  prepared  a  plain  statement  of  his  belief 
in  Christ's  standing  on  the  modern  use  of  Sunday, 
and  as  on  the  other  occasions  when  he  had  spoken 
the  first  Sunday  in  the  month,  he  cast  out  of  his 
reckoning  all  thought  of  the  consequences.  His 
one  purpose  was  to  do  just  as  in  his  thought  Christ 
would  do  with  that  subject. 

The  people  in  Milton  thought  that  the  first  Sun- 
day Phillip  appeared  in  his  pulpit  he  would  natu- 
rally denounce  the  saloon  again.  But  when  he 
finally  recovered  sufficiently  to  preach  again  he 
determined  that  for  a  while  he  would  say  nothing 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      71 

in  the  way  of  sermons  against  the  whiskey  evil. 
He  had  a  great  horror  of  seeming  to  ride  a  hobby, 
of  being  a  man  of  one  idea  and  making  people 
tired  of  him  because  he  harped  on  one  string. 
He  had  uttered  his  denunciation  and  he  would 
wait  a  little  before  he  spoke  again.  The  whiskey 
power  was  not  the  only  bad  thing  in  Milton  that 
needed  to  be  attacked.  There  were  other  things 
which  must  be  said.  And  so  Phillip  limped  into 
his  pulpit  the  third  Sunday  of  the  month  and 
preached  on  a  general  theme,  to  the  disappoint- 
ment of  a  great  crowd,  almost  as  large  as  the  last 
one  he  had  faced.  And  yet  his  very  appearance 
was  a  sermon  in  itself  against  the  institution  he  had 
held  up  to  public  condemnation  on  that  occasion. 
His  knee  wound  proved  very  stubborn,  and  he  limped 
badly.  That  in  itself  spoke  eloquently  of  the  das- 
tardly attempt  on  his  life.  His  face  was  pale  and 
he  had  grown  thin.  His  shoulder  was  stiff  and 
the  enforced  quietness  of  his  delivery  contrasted 
strangely  with  his  customary  fiery  appearance  on 
the  platform.  Altogether  that  first  Sunday  of  his 
reappearance  in  his  pulpit  was  a  stronger  sermon 
against  the  saloon  than  anything  he  could  have 
spoken  or  written. 

When  the  first  Sunday  in  the  next  month  came  on, 
Phillip  was  more  like  his  old  self.  He  had  gathered 
strength  enough  to  go  around  two  Sunday  after- 
noons and  note  for  himself  the  desecration  of  the 
day  as  it  went  on  recklessly.  As  he  saw  it  all,  it 
seemed  to  him  that  the  church  in  Milton  was  practi- 


72       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

cally  doing  nothing  to  stop  the  evil.  All  the  ministers 
complained  of  the  difficulty  of  getting  an  evening 
congregation.  Yet  hundreds  of  young  people  walked 
past  all  the  churches  every  Sunday  night,  bent  on 
pleasure,  going  to  the  theatres  or  concerts  or  parties, 
which  seemed  to  have  no  trouble  in  attracting  the 
crowd.  Especially  was  this  true  of  the  foreign 
population,  the  working  element  connected  with  the 
mills.  It  was  a  common  occurrence  for  dog  fights, 
cock  fights,  and  shooting  matches  of  various  kinds  to 
be  going  on  in  the  tenement  district  on  Sunday,  and 
the  police  seemed  powerless  or  careless  in  the  matter. 

All  this  burned  into  Phillip  like  molten  metal,  and 
when  he  faced  his  people  on  the  Sunday  already 
becoming  a  noted  Sunday  for  them,  he  quivered 
with  the  earnestness  and  thrill  that  always  come 
to  a  sensitive  man  when  he  feels  sure  he  has  a  ser- 
mon which  must  be  preached  and  a  message  which 
the  people  must  hear  for  their  lives. 

He  took  for  a  text  Christ's  words,  "  The  Sabbath 
was  made  for  man;"  and  at  once  defined  its 
meaning  as  a  special  day. 

"  The  true  meaning  of  our  modern  Sunday  may 
be  summed  up  in  two  words,  Rest  and  Worship. 
Under  the  head  of  Rest  may  be  gathered  whatever 
is  needed  for  the  people,  and  healthful  recuperation 
of  one's  physical  and  mental  powers,  always  regard- 
ing, not  simply  our  own  ease  and  comfort,  but  also 
the  same  right  to  rest  on  the  part  of  the  remainder 
of  the  community.  Under  the  head  of  Worship  may 
be  gathered  all  those  acts  which  either  through  dis- 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      73 

tinct  religious  service  or  work  tend  to  bring  men 
into  closer  and  dearer  relation  to  spiritual  life,  to 
teach  men  larger,  sweeter  truths  of  existence,  and 
leave  them  better  fitted  to  take  up  the  duties  of 
every-day  business. 

"  Now  it  is  plain  to  me  that  if  Christ  were  here 
to-day,  and  pastor  of  Calvary  Church,  he  would  feel 
compelled  to  say  some  very  plain  words  about  the 
desecration  of  the  Sabbath  in  Milton.  Take  for 
example  the  opening  of  the  fruit  stands  and  cigar 
stores  and  meat  markets  every  Sunday  morning. 
What  is  the  one  reason  why  these  places  are  open 
this  very  minute  while  I  am  speaking?  There  is 
only  one  reason,  —  in  order  that  the  owners  of  these 
places  may  sell  their  goods  and  make  money.  They 
are  not  satisfied  with  what  they  can  make  in  six  days. 
Their  greed  seizes  on  the  one  day  which  ought  to 
be  used  for  the  rest  and  worship  men  need,  and 
turns  that  also  into  a  day  of  merchandise.  Do  we 
need  any  other  fact  to  convince  us  of  the  terrible 
selfishness  of  the  human  heart  ? 

"  Or  take  the  case  of  the  saloons.  What  right 
have  they  to  open  their  doors  in  direct  contradiction 
to  the  town  ordinance  forbidding  it?  And  yet  this 
ordinance  is  held  by  them  in  such  contempt  that 
this  very  morning  as  I  came  to  this  church  I  passed 
more  than  half  a  dozen  of  these  sections  of  hell, 
wide  open  to  any  poor  sinning  soul  that  might  be 
enticed  in  there.  Citizens  of  Milton,  where  does 
the  responsibility  for  this  violation  of  law  rest  ?  Does 
it  rest  with  the  churches  and  the  preachers  to  see 


74       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

that  the  few  Sunday  laws  we  have  are  enforced  by 
them,  while  the  business  men  and  the  police  lazily 
dodge  the  issue  and  care  not  how  the  matter  goes, 
saying  it  is  none  of  their  business  ? 

"  But  suppose  you  say  the  saloons  are  beyond 
your  power.  That  does  not  release  you  from  doing 
what  is  in  your  power,  easily,  to  prevent  this  day  from 
being  trampled  under  foot  and  made  like  every 
other  day  in  its  scramble  after  money  and  pleasure. 
Who  own  these  fruit  stores  and  cigar  stands  and 
meat  markets,  and  who  patronize  them  ?  Is  it  not 
true  that  church-members  encourage  all  these  places 
by  purchasing  of  them  on  the  Lord's  Day?  I  have 
been  told  by  one  of  these  fruit  dealers  with  whom  I 
have  talked  lately  that  among  his  best  customers  on 
Sunday  are  some  of  the  most  respected  members  of 
this  church.  It  has  also  been  told  me  that  in  the 
summer  time  the  heaviest  patronage  of  the  Sunday 
ice-cream  business  is  from  the  church-members 
of  Milton.  Of  what  value  is  it  that  we  place  on  our 
ordinance  laws  forbidding  the  sale  of  these  things 
on  Sunday,  and  then  violate  the  statute  by  buying 
the  very  things  covered  by  the  law?  How  far  are 
we  responsible  by  our  example  for  encouraging  the 
breaking  of  the  day  on  the  part  of  those  who  would 
find  it  unprofitable  to  keep  their  business  going  if 
we  did  not  purchase  of  them  on  this  day? 

"  It  is  possible  there  are  very  many  persons  here 
in  this  house  this  morning  who  are  ready  to  exclaim, 
'  This  is  intolerable  bigotry  and  puritanical  narrow- 
ness. This  is  not  the  attitude  Christ  would  take  on 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      75 

this  question.  He  was  too  large-minded.  He  was 
too  far  advanced  in  thought  to  make  the  day  mean 
anything  of  that  sort.' 

"  But  let  us  consider  what  is  meant  by  the  Sunday 
of  our  modern  life  as  Christ  would  view  it.  There 
is  no  disputing  the  fact  that  the  age  is  material, 
mercantile,  money- making.  For  six  feverish,  eager, 
rushing  days  it  is  absorbed  in  the  pursuit  of  money 
or  fame  or  pleasure.  Then  God  strikes  the  note  of 
his  silence  in  among  the  clashing  sounds  of  earth's 
Babel  and  calls  mankind  to  make  a  day  unlike  the 
other  days.  It  is  his  merciful  thoughtfulness  for  the 
race  which  has  created  this  special  day  for  men. 
Is  it  too  much  to  ask  that  on  this  one  day  men 
think  of  something  else  besides  politics,  stocks,  busi- 
ness, amusement?  Is  God  grudging  the  man  the 
pleasure  of  life  when  He  gives  the  man  six  days  for 
labor  and  then  asks  for  only  one  day  specially  set 
apart  for  him?  The  objection  to  very  many  things 
commonly  mentioned  by  the  pulpit  as  harmful  to 
Sunday  is  not  necessarily  based  upon  the  harmful- 
ness  of  the  things  themselves,  but  upon  the  fact  that 
these  things  are  repetitions  of  the  working  day,  and 
so  are  distracting  to  the  observance  of  the  Sunday 
as  a  day  of  Rest  and  Worship,  undisturbed  by  the 
things  that  have  already  for  six  days  crowded  the 
thought  of  men.  Let  me  illustrate. 

"  Take  for  example  the  case  of  the  Sunday  paper, 
as  it  pours  into  Milton  every  Sunday  morning  on 
the  special  newspaper  train.  Now,  there  may  not 
be  anything  in  the  contents  of  these  Sunday  papers 


76       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

that  is  any  worse  than  can  be  found  in  any  week- 
day edition.  Granted,  for  the  sake  of  the  illustra- 
tion, that  the  matter  found  in  the  Sunday  paper  is 
just  like  that  in  the  Saturday  issue,  —  politics,  fashion, 
locals,  personals,  dramatic  and  sporting  news,  liter- 
ary articles  by  well-known  writers,  a  serial  story, 
police  record,  crime,  accident,  fatality,  etc.,  any- 
where from  twenty  to  forty  or  sixty  pages,  —  an 
amount  of  reading  matter  that  will  take  the  average 
man  a  whole  forenoon  to  read.  I  say,  granted  that 
all  this  vast  quantity  of  material  is  harmless  in  itself 
to  moral  life,  yet  here  is  the  reason  why  it  seems  to 
me  Christ  would,  as  I  am  doing  now,  advise  this 
church  and  the  people  of  Milton  to  avoid  reading 
the  Sunday  paper,  because  it  forces  upon  the  thought 
of  the  community  the  very  same  things  which  have 
been  crowding  in  upon  it  all  the  week,  and  in  doing 
this  necessarily  distracts  the  man's  thoughts,  and 
makes  the  elevation  of  his  spiritual  nature  exceed- 
ingly doubtful  or  difficult.  I  defy  any  preacher  in 
this  town  to  make  much  impression  on  the  average 
man  who  has  come  to  church  saturated  through  and 
through  with  sixty  pages  of  Sunday  newspaper,  that 
is,  supposing  the  man  who  has  read  that  much  is  in 
a  frame  of  mind  to  go  to  church.  But  that  is  not 
the  point.  It  is  not  a  question  of  press  versus  pul- 
pit. The  press  and  the  pulpit  are  units  of  our 
modern  life  which  ought  to  work  hand  in  hand. 
And  the  mere  matter  of  church  attendance  might  not 
count,  if  it  were  a  question  with  the  average  man 
whether  he  would  go  to  church  and  hear  a  dull  ser- 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      77 

mon  or  stay  at  home  and  read  an  interesting  news- 
paper. That  is  not  the  point.  The  point  is 
whether  the  day  of  Rest  and  Worship  shall  be  like 
every  other  day ;  whether  we  shall  let  our  minds  go 
right  on  as  they  have  been  going,  to  the  choking  up 
of  avenues  of  spiritual  growth  and  religious  service. 
Is  it  right  for  us  to  allow  in  Milton  the  occurrence 
of  base-ball  games  and  Sunday  racing  and  evening 
theatres?  How  far  is  all  this  demoralizing  to  our 
better  life  ?  What  would  Christ  say,  do  you  think  ? 
Even  supposing  he  would  advise  this  church  to  take 
and  read  the  big  Sunday  paper  sent  in  on  the  special 
Sunday  train,  that  keeps  a  small  army  of  men  at 
work  and  away  from  all  Sunday  privileges,  even  sup- 
posing he  would  say  it  was  all  right  to  sell  fruit  and 
cigars  and  meat  on  Sunday,  and  perfectly  proper  for 
church-members  to  buy  these  things  on  that  day, 
what  would  Christ  say  was  the  real  purpose  of  this 
day  in  the  thought  of  the  Divine  Creator  when  he 
made  the  day  for  man? 

"  I  cannot  conceive  that  he  would  say  anything 
less  than  this  to  the  people  of  this  town  and  this 
church  :  he  would  say  it  is  our  duty  to  make  this 
day  different  from  all  other  days  in  the  two  particu- 
lars of  Rest  and  Worship.  He  would  say  that  we 
owe  it  to  the  Father  of  our  souls  in  common  grati- 
tude for  his  mighty  love  toward  us  that  we  spend 
the  day  in  ways  pleasing  to  him.  He  would  say 
that  the  wonderful  civilization  of  our  time  should 
study  how  to  make  this  day  a  true  rest  day  to  the 
working-man  of  the  world,  and  that  all  unnecessary 


78      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

carrying  of  passengers  or  merchandise  should  stop, 
so  as  to  give  all  men,  if  possible,  every  seven  days, 
one  whole  day  of  rest  and  communion  with  some- 
thing better  than  the  things  that  perish  with  the 
using.  He  would  say  that  the  Church  and  the 
church-member  and  the  Christian  everywhere  should 
do  all  in  his  power  to  make  the  day  a  glad,  powerful, 
useful,  restful,  anticipated  twenty-four  hours,  looked 
forward  to  with  pleasant  longing  by  little  children 
and  laboring  men  and  railroad  men  and  street-car 
men  as  the  one  day  of  all  the  week,  happiest  and 
best  because  different  in  its  use.  And  so  different 
should  this  day  be  that  when  Monday's  toil  begins 
the  man  feels  refreshed  in  body  and  in  soul  because 
he  has  paused  a  little  while  in  the  mad  whirl  of  his 
struggle  for  bread  and  fame,  and  has  fellowshipped 
with  heavenly  things,  and  heard  something  diviner 
than  the  jangling  discords  of  this  narrow,  selfish 
earth. 

"  If  this  thought  of  Sunday  is  bigotry  or  narrow- 
ness, then  I  stand  convicted  as  a  bigot  living  out- 
side of  the  nineteenth  century.  But  I  am  not 
concerned  about  that.  What  I  am  concerned  about 
is  Christ's  thought  of  this  day.  If  I  understand  his 
spirit  right  I  believe  he  would  say  what  I  have  said. 
He  would  say  that  it  is  not  a  right  use  of  this  day 
for  the  men  and  women  of  this  generation  to  buy 
and  sell  merchandise,  to  attend  or  countenance 
places  or  spectacles  of  amusement,  to  engage  in 
card  parties  at  their  homes,  to  fill  their  thoughts  full 
of  the  ordinary  affairs  of  business  or  the  events  of 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG,      79 

the  world.  He  would  say  that  it  is  the  Christian's 
duty  and  privilege  in  this  age  to  elevate  the  uses 
of  this  day  so  that  everything  done  and  said  should 
tend  to  lift  the  race  up  higher,  and  make  it  better 
acquainted  with  the  nature  of  God  and  its  own 
eternal  destiny.  If  Christ  would  not  take  that  view 
of  this  great  question,  then  I  have  totally  miscon- 
ceived and  misunderstood  his  character.  'The 
Sabbath  was  made  for  man.'  It  was  made  for  him 
that  he  might  make  of  it  a  shining  jewel  in  the 
string  of  pearls  which  should  adorn  all  the  days  of 
the  week,  every  day  speaking  of  divine  things  to  the 
man,  but  Sunday  opening  up  the  beauty  and  grandeur 
of  the  eternal  life  a  little  wider  yet. 

"  This,  dear  friends  all,  has  been  my  message  to 
you  this  morning.  May  God  forgive  whatever  has 
been  spoken  contrary  to  the  heart  and  spirit  of  our 
dear  Lord." 

If  Phillip's  sermon  two  months  before  had  made 
him  enemies,  this  sermon  made  him  even  more. 
He  had  unconsciously  this  time  struck  two  of  his 
members  very  hard.  One  of  them  was  part  owner 
in  a  meat  market  which  his  partner  kept  open  on 
Sunday.  The  other  leased  one  of  the  parks  where 
the  base-ball  games  had  been  played.  Other  per- 
sons in  the  congregation  felt  more  or  less  hurt  by 
the  plain  way  Phillip  spoke, —  especially  the  members 
who  took  and  read  the  Sunday  paper.  They  went 
away  feeling  that  while  much  that  he  said  was  true 
there  was  too  much  strictness  in  the  minister's  view 
of  the  whole  subject.  This  feeling  grew  as  days 


8o       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP   STRONG. 

went  on.  People  said  Phillip  did  not  know  all 
the  facts  in  regard  to  people's  business  and  the 
complications  which  necessitated  Sunday  work,  and 
so  forth. 

These  were  the  beginnings  of  troublous  times  for 
Phillip.  The  trial  of  the  saloon-keeper  was  coming 
on  in  a  few  days  and  Phillip  would  be  called  to 
witness  in  the  case.  He  dreaded  it  with  a  nervous 
dread  peculiar  to  his  sensitive  temper.  Neverthe- 
less he  went  on  with  his  church  work,  studying  the 
problem  of  the  town,  endearing  himself  to  very 
many  in  and  out  of  his  church  by  his  manly  cour- 
ageous life,  and  feeling  the  heart-ache  in  him  grow 
as  the  sin  burden  of  the  place  weighed  heavier  on 
him.  These  were  days  when  Phillip  did  much 
praying,  and  his  regular  preaching,  which  grew  in 
power  with  the  common  people,  told  the  story  of 
his  night  vigils  with  the  Christ  he  adored. 

It  was  at  this  particular  time  that  a  special  event 
occurred  which  put  its  mark  on  Phillip's  work  in 
Milton  and  became  a  part  of  its  warp  and  woof,  —  a 
thing  hard  to  tell,  but  necessary  to  relate  as  best 
one  may. 

He  came  home  late  one  evening  from  some 
church  meeting,  letting  himself  into  the  parsonage 
with  the  night-key,  and  not  seeing  his  wife  in  the 
sitting-room  where  she  was  in  the  habit  of  reading 
and  sewing,  he  walked  on  into  the  small  sewing 
room  where  she  sometimes  sat  at  special  work, 
thinking  to  find  her  there.  She  was  not  there. 
Phillip  opened  the  kitchen  door  and  inquired 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP   STRONG.      8 1 

of  the  servant,  who  sat  there  reading,  where  his 
wife  was. 

"  I  think  she  went  upstairs  a  little  while  ago," 
was  the  reply. 

Phillip  went  at  once  upstairs  into  his  study  and 
to  his  alarm  found  his  wife  had  fainted  away.  She 
lay  on  the  floor  in  front  of  his  desk.  As  Phillip 
stooped  to  raise  her  he  noticed  two  pieces  of  paper, 
one  of  them  addressed  to  "  The  Preacher  "  and  the 
other  to  "  The  Preacher's  Wife."  They  were  anony- 
mous scrawls,  threatening  the  lives  of  the  minister 
and  his  wife.  On  his  desk,  driven  deep  into  the 
wood  was  a  large  knife.  Then  said  Phillip,  with  a 
prayer,  "Verily,  an  enemy  hath  done  this." 


CHAPTER   IV. 

r  I AHE  anonymous  letters,  or  rather  scrawls,  which 
JL       Phillip  found  by  the   side  of  his  unconscious 
wife    as    he    stooped    to    raise    her    up,    read   as 
follows  :  — 

"PREACHER:  Better  pack  up  and  leave.  Milton 
is  not  big  enough  to  hold  you  alive.  Take  warning 
in  time." 

"  PREACHER'S  WIFE:  As  long  as  you  stay  in  Milton 
there  is  danger  of  two  funerals.  Dynamite  kills  women 
as  well  as  men." 

Phillip  sat  by  the  study  lounge,  holding  these 
scrawls  in  his  hand  as  his  wife  was  recovering 
from  her  fainting  fit  after  he  had  applied  restor- 
atives. His  heart  was  filled  with  horror  at  the 
thought  of  the  complete  cowardice  which  could 
threaten  the  life  of  an  innocent  woman.  There 
was  with  it  all  a  feeling  of  intense  contempt  of  such 
childish,  dime-novel  methods  of  intimidation  as  that 
of  sticking  a  knife  into  the  study  desk.  If  it  had 
not  been  for  its  effect  on  his  wife,  Phillip  would 
have  laughed  at  the  whole  thing.  As  it  was,  he  was 
surprised  and  alarmed  that  she  had  fainted,  —  a 
thing  he  had  never  known  her  to  do ;  and  as  soon 
as  she  was  able  to  speak  he  listened  anxiously  to 
her  story. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      83 

"  It  must  have  been  an  hour  after  you  had  gone, 
Phillip,  that  I  thought  I  heard  a  noise  upstairs,  and 
thinking  perhaps  you  had  left  one  of  your  windows 
down  at  the  top  and  the  curtain  was  flapping,  I 
went  right  up,  and  the  minute  I  stepped  into  the 
room  I  had  the  feeling  that  some  one  was  there." 

" Did  n't  you  carry  up  a  light?  " 

"  No.  The  lamp  was  burning  at  the  end  of  the 
upper  hall  and  so  I  never  thought  of  needing  more. 
Well,  as  I  moved  over  toward  the  window,  still  feel- 
ing that  strange,  unaccountable  knowledge  of  some 
one  there,  a  man  stepped  out  from  behind  your 
desk,  walked  right  up  to  me  and  held  out  those 
letters  in  one  hand,  while  with  the  other  he  threw 
the  light  from  a  small  bull's-eye  or  burglar's  lantern 
upon  them." 

Phillip  listened  in  amazement. 

"  Sarah,  you  must  have  dreamed  all  that !  It 
is  n't  likely  that  any  man  would  do  such  a  thing." 

"  Phillip,  I  did  not  dream.  I  was  terribly  wide- 
awake, and  so  scared  that  I  could  n't  even  scream. 
My  tongue  seemed  to  be  entirely  useless.  But  I  felt 
compelled  to  read  what  was  written,  and  the  man 
held  the  papers  there  until  the  words  seemed  to 
burn  my  eyes.  He  then  walked  over  to  the  desk 
and  with  one  blow  drove  the  knife  down  into  the 
wood,  and  then  I  fainted  away,  and  that  is  all  I  can 
remember." 

"And  what  became  of  the  man?"  asked  Phillip, 
still  inclined  to  think  that  his  wife  had  in  some  way 
fallen  asleep  and  dreamed  at  least  a  part  of  this 


84      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

strange  scene,  perhaps  before  she  went  up  to  the 
study  and  discovered  the  letters. 

"  I  don't  know ;  maybe  he  is  here  in  the  house 
yet.  Oh,  Phillip,  I  am  almost  dead  with  fear, —  not 
for  myself,  but  for  your  life  !  " 

"  I  never  had  any  fear  of  anonymous  letters  or  of 
threats,"  replied  Phillip,  contemptuously  eying  the 
knife  which  was  still  sticking  in  the  desk.  "  Ev- 
idently the  saloon  men  think  I  am  a  child,  to  be 
frightened  with  these  bugaboos  which  have  figured 
in  every  cheap  detective  story  since  the  time  of 
Captain  Kidd." 

"Then  you  think  this  is  the  work  of  the  saloon 
men?" 

"  Who  else  can  it  be  ?  We  have  no  other  en- 
emies of  this  sort  in  Milton." 

"  But  they  will  kill  you  !  Oh,  Phillip,  I  cannot 
bear  the  thought  of  living  here  in  this  way.  Let  us 
leave  this  dreadful  place  !  " 

"Little  woman,"  said  Phillip,  while  he  bravely 
drove  away  any  slight  anxiety  he  may  have  had  for 
himself,  "  don't  you  think  it  would  be  cowardly  to 
run  away  so  soon?" 

"  Would  n't  it  be  better  to  run  away  too  soon  than 
to  be  killed  ?  Is  there  any  bravery  in  staying  in  a 
place  where  you  are  likely  to  be  murdered  by  some 
coward?  " 

"  I  don't  think  I  shall  be,"  said  Phillip,  confidently. 
"And  I  don't  want  you  to  be  afraid.  They  will  not 
dare  to  harm  you." 

"  No,    Phillip  !  "    exclaimed    his    wife,  eagerly ; 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      85 

"you  must  not  be  mistaken.  I  did  not  faint  away 
to-night  because  I  was  afraid  for  myself.  Truly,  I 
have  no  fear  there.  It  was  the  thought  of  the  peril 
in  which  you  stand  daily  as  you  go  out  among  these 
men,  and  as  you  go  back  and  forth  to  your  meetings 
in  the  dark.  I  am  growing  nervous  and  anxious 
ever  since  the  shooting;  and  when  I  was  startled 
by  the  man  here  to-night  I  was  so  weak  that  I 
fainted.  But  I  am  sure  they  do  not  care  to  harm 
me ;  you  are  the  object  of  their  hatred.  If  they 
strike  any  one  it  will  be  you.  That  is  the  reason  I 
want  you  to  leave  this  place.  Say  you  will,  Phillip. 
Surely  there  are  other  churches  where  you  could 
preach  as  you  desire  to  do  and  still  not  be  in  such 
constant  danger." 

It  required  all  of  Phillip's  wisdom  and  love  and 
discernment  of  his  immediate  duty  to  answer  his 
wife's  appeal  and  say  no  to  it.  It  was  one  of  the 
severest  struggles  he  had  ever  had.  There  was  to 
be  taken  into  the  account  not  only  his  own  safety, 
but  that  of  his  wife  as  well.  For,  think  what  he 
would,  he  could  not  shake  off  the  feeling  that  a  cow- 
ard so  cowardly  as  to  resort  to  the  assassination  of 
a  man  would  not  be  over  particular  even  if  the  victim 
should  chance  to  be  a  woman.  Phillip  was  man 
enough  to  be  entirely  unshaken  by  anonymous 
threats.  A  thousand  a  day  would  not  have  un- 
nerved him  in  the  least.  He  would  have  writhed 
under  the  sense  of  the  great  sin  which  they  revealed, 
but  that  is  all  the  effect  they  would  have  had. 

When  it  came   to   his   wife,    however,    that  was 


86       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

another  question.  For  a  moment  he  felt  like  send- 
ing in  his  resignation  and  moving  out  of  Milton  as 
soon  as  possible.  But  finally  he  decided  that  he 
ought  to  remain ;  and  Mrs.  Strong  did  not  oppose 
his  decision  when  once  he  had  declared  it.  She 
knew  Phillip  must  do  what  to  him  was  the  will  of 
his  Master,  and  with  that  she  was  content. 

She  had  overcome  her  nervousness  and  dread 
now  that  Phillip's  courageous  presence  strengthened 
her,  and  she  began  to  tell  him  that  he  had  better 
hunt  for  the  man  who  had  appeared  so  mysteriously 
in  the  study. 

"  I  have  n't  convinced  myself  yet  that  there  is 
any  man.  Confess,  Sarah,  that  you  dreamed  all 
that." 

"  I  did  not,"  replied  his  wife,  a  little  indignantly. 
"  Do  you  think  I  wrote  those  letters  and  stuck  that 
knife  into  the  desk  myself?  " 

"  Of  course  not.  But  how  could  a  man  get  into 
the  study  and  neither  you  nor  the  girl  know  it?  " 

"  I  did  hear  a  noise,  and  that  is  what  started  me 
upstairs.  And  he  may  be  in  the  house  yet.  I  shall 
not  rest  easy  until  you  look  into  all  the  closets  and 
down  cellar  and  everywhere." 

So  Phillip,  to  quiet  his  wife,  searched  the  house 
thoroughly,  but  found  nothing.  The  servant  and  the 
minister's  wife  followed  along  at  a  respectful  distance 
behind  Phillip,  one  armed  with  the  poker  and  the 
other  with  a  fire-shovel,  while  he  pulled  open  closet 
doors  with  reckless  disregard  of  any  possible  man 
hiding  within,  and  pretended  to  look  into  the  most 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      87 

unlikely  places  for  him,  joking  all  the  while  to  reassure 
his  trembling  followers. 

They  found  one  of  the  windows  in  Phillip's  study 
partly  open.  But  that  did  not  prove  anything, 
although  a  man  might  have  crawled  in  and  out 
again  through  that  window  from  a  wing  of  the  par- 
sonage, the  roof  of  which  ran  so  near  the  window 
that  an  active  person  could  gain  entrance  that  way. 
The  whole  affair  remained  more  or  less  a  mystery  to 
Phillip.  However,  the  letters  and  the  knife  were 
real.  He  took  them  down  town  next  day  to  the 
office  of  the  evening  paper,  and  asked  the  editor  to 
publish  the  letters  and  describe  the  knife.  It  was 
too  good  a  piece  of  news  to  omit,  and  Milton  people 
were  treated  to  a  genuine  sensation  when  the  article 
came  out.  Phillip's  object  in  giving  the  incident 
publicity  was  to  show  the  community  what  a  mur- 
derous element  it  was  fostering  in  the  saloon  power. 
Those  threats  and  the  knife  preached  a  sermon  to 
the  thoughtful  people  of  Milton,  and  citizens  who 
had  never  asked  the  question  before  began  to  ask 
now,  "  Are  we  to  endure  this  saloon  monster  much 
longer?" 

As  for  Phillip  he  went  his  way  the  same  as  ever. 
Some  of  his  friends  and  church- members  even 
advised  him  to  carry  a  revolver  and  be  careful  about 
going  out  alone  at  night.  Phillip  laughed  at  the 
idea  of  a  revolver  and  said,  "  If  the  saloon  men 
want  to  get  rid  of  me  without  the  trouble  of  shoot- 
ing me  themselves  they  had  better  make  me  a 
present  of  a  silver-mounted  pistol ;  then  I  should 


88        THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

manage  the  shooting  myself.  And  as  for  being 
careful  about  going  out  in  the  evenings,  what  is  this 
town  thinking  of,  that  it  will  continue  to  license  and 
legalize  an  institution  that  makes  its  honest  citizens 
advise  new-comers  to  stay  at  home  for  fear  of  assas- 
sination? No.  I  shall  go  about  my  work  just  as  if 
I  lived  in  the  most  law-abiding  community  in 
America.  And  if  I  am  murdered  by  the  whiskey 
men  I  want  the  people  of  Milton  to  understand  that 
the  citizens  will  be  as  much  to  blame  for  the  mur- 
der as  the  saloon  men.  For  a  community  that 
will  license  such  a  curse  ought  to  bear  the  shame  of 
the  legitimate  fruits  of  it." 

The  trial  of  the  man  with  the  hare-lip  had  been 
postponed  for  some  legal  reason,  and  Phillip  felt 
relieved  somewhat.  He  dreaded  the  ordeal  of  the 
court  scene.  And  one  or  two  visits  made  to  the 
jail  had  not  been  helpful  to  him.  The  man  had  re- 
fused each  time  to  see  the  minister,  and  he  had  gone 
away  feeling  hungry  in  his  soul  for  the  man's  re- 
demption, and  realizing  something  of  the  spirit  of 
Christ  when  he  was  compelled  to  cry  out,  "  Ye 
will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might  have  life." 
That  always  seemed  to  Phillip  the  most  awful  feature 
of  the  history  of  Christ,  —  that  the  very  people  he 
loved  and  yearned  after  spit  upon  him  and  finally 
broke  his  heart  with  their  hatred. 

He  continued  his  study  of  the  problem  of  the 
town,  believing  that  every  place  has  certain  peculiar 
local  characteristics  which  every  church  and  preacher 
ought  to  study.  He  was  struck  by  the  aspect  of 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      89 

the  lower  part  of  the  town,  where  nearly  all  the 
poorer  people  lived.  He  went  down  there  and 
studied  the  situation  thoroughly.  It  did  not  take  a 
very  great  amount  of  thinking  to  convince  him  that 
the  church  power  in  Milton  was  not  properly  dis- 
tributed. The  seven  largest  churches  in  the  place 
were  all  on  one  street,  well  up  in  the  wealthy  resi- 
dence portion,  and  not  more  than  two  or  three  blocks 
apart.  Down  in  the  tenement  district  there  was  not 
a  single  church  building,  and  only  one  or  two  weak 
mission-schools  which  did  not  touch  the  problem  of 
the  district  at  all.  The  distance  from  this  poor  part 
of  the  town  to  the  churches  was  fully  a  mile,  a  distance 
that  certainly  stood  as  a  geographical  obstacle  to  the 
church  attendance  of  the  neighborhood,  even  sup- 
posing the  people  were  eager  to  go  to  the  large 
churches,  which  was  not  at  all  the  fact.  Indeed, 
Phillip  soon  discovered  that  the  people  were  indif- 
ferent in  the  matter.  The  churches  on  the  fashion- 
able street  in  town  meant  less  than  nothing  to  them. 
They  never  would  go  to  them,  and  there  was  little 
hope  that  anything  the  pastors  or  members  could  do 
would  draw  the  people  that  distance  to  come  within 
church  influence.  The  fact  of  the  matter  was  the 
seven  churches  of  different  denominations  in  Milton 
had  no  living  connection  whatever  with  nearly  one 
half  the  population,  and  that  the  most  needy  half,  of 
the  place. 

The  longer  Phillip  studied  the  situation,  the  more 
unchristian  it  looked  to  him,  and  the  more  he  longed 
to  change  it.  He  went  over  the  ground  again  and 


go       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF    PHILLIP  STRONG. 

again  very  carefully.  He  talked  with  the  other 
ministers,  and  the  most  advanced  Christians  in  his 
own  church.  There  was  a  variety  of  opinion  as  to 
what  might  be  done,  but  no  one  was  ready  for  the 
radical  move  which  Phillip  advocated  when  he  came 
to  speak  on  the  subject  the  first  Sunday  of  the 
month. 

The  first  Sunday  was  beginning  to  be  more  or 
less  dreaded  or  anticipated  by  Calvary  Church 
people.  They  were  learning  to  expect  something 
radical,  sweeping,  almost  revolutionary  in  Phillip's 
utterances  on  Christ  and  Modern  Society.  Some 
agreed  with  him  as  far  as  he  had  gone.  Very  many 
had  been  hurt  at  his  plainness  of  speech.  This  was 
especially  true  of  the  property  owners  and  the 
fashionable  part  of  Phillip's  membership.  Yet  there 
was  a  fascination  about  Phillip's  preaching  that  pre- 
vented, so  far,  any  very  serious  outbreak  or  dissen- 
sion in  the  church.  Phillip  was  a  recognized  leader. 
In  his  presentation  of  the  truth  he  was  large- 
minded.  He  had  the  faculty  of  holding  men's 
respect.  There  was  no  mistaking  the  situation, 
however.  Mr.  Winter,  with  others,  was  working 
against  him.  Phillip  was  vaguely  conscious  of  much 
that  did  not  develop  into  open,  apparent  fact. 
Nevertheless,  when  he  came  up  on  the  first  Sunday 
of  the  next  month  he  found  an  audience  that 
crowded  the  church  to  the  doors,  and  in  the  audience 
were  scattered  numbers  of  men  from  the  working- 
men's  district  with  whom  Phillip  had  talked  while 
down  there.  It  was,  as  before,  an  inspiring  con- 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF   PHILLIP  STRONG. 


91 


gregation,  and  Phillip  faced  it  feeling  sure  in  his 
heart  that  he  had  a  great  subject  to  unfold,  and  a 
message  to  deliver  to  the  Church  of  Christ  such 
as  he  could  not  but  believe  Christ  would  most 
certainly  present  if  he  were  visibly  present  in 
Milton. 

He  began  by  describing  the  exact  condition  of 
affairs  in  Milton.  To  assist  this  description  he  had 
brought  with  him  into  the  church  his  map  of  the  town. 

"  Look  now,"  he  said,  pointing  out  the  different 
localities,  "  at  B.  Street  where  we  now  are.  Here 
are  seven  of  the  largest  churches  of  the  place  on  this 
street.  The  entire  distance  between  the  first  of 
these  church  buildings  and  the  last  one  is  a  little 
over  half  a  mile.  Three  of  these  churches  are  only 
two  blocks  apart.  Then  consider  the  character  of 
the  residences  and  people  in  the  vicinity  of  this 
street.  It  is  what  is  called  desirable;  that  is,  the 
homes  are  the  very  finest,  and  the  people  almost 
without  exception  are  refined,  respectable,  well- 
educated,  and  Christian  in  training.  All  the  wealth 
of  the  town  centres  about  B.  Street.  All  the  society 
life  extends  out  from  it  on  each  side.  It  is  consid- 
ered the  most  fashionable  street  for  drives  and 
promenades.  It  is  well-lighted,  well-paved,  well- 
kept.  The  people  who  come  out  of  the  houses  on 
B.  Street  are  always  well  dressed  and  comfortable 
looking.  Mind  you,"  continued  Phillip,  raising  his 
hand  with  a  significant  gesture,  "  I  do  not  want  to 
have  you  think  that  I  consider  good  clothes  and 
comfortable  looks  as  unchristian  or  anything  against 


9 2       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP   STRONG. 

the  people  who  present  such  an  appearance.  Far 
from  it.  I  simply  mention  this  fact  to  make  the 
contrast  I  am  now  going  to  show  you  all  the  plainer. 
For  let  us  leave  B.  Street  now  and  go  down  into  the 
flats  by  the  river  where  nearly  all  the  mill  people 
have  their  homes.  I  wish  you  would  note  first  the 
distance  from  B.  Street  and  the  churches  to  this 
tenement  district.  It  is  nine  blocks,  —  that  is,  a 
little  over  a  mile.  To  the  edge  of  the  tenement 
houses  farthest  from  our  own  church  building  it  is  a 
mile  and  three  quarters.  And  within  that  entire  dis- 
trict, measuring  nearly  two  by  three  miles,  there  is 
not  a  church  building.  There  are  two  feeble  mis- 
sion-schools, which  are  held  in  plain,  unattractive 
halls,  where  every  Sunday  a  handful  of  children  meet ; 
but  nothing  practically  is  being  done  by  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  this  place  to  give  the  people  in  that 
part  of  the  town  the  privileges  and  power  of  the  life 
of  Christ,  the  life  more  abundantly.  The  houses 
down  there  are  of  the  cheapest  description.  The 
people  who  come  out  of  them  are  far  from  well- 
dressed.  The  streets  and  alleys  are  dirty  and  ill- 
smelling.  And  no  one  cares  to  promenade  for 
pleasure  up  and  down  the  sidewalks  in  that  neigh- 
borhood. It  is  not  a  safe  place  to  go  to  alone  at 
night.  The  most  frequent  disturbances  come  from 
that  part  of  the  town.  All  the  hard  characters  find 
refuge  there.  And  let  me  say  that  I  am  not  now 
speaking  of  the  working  people.  They  are  almost 
without  exception  law-abiding.  But  in  every  town 
like  ours  the  floating  population  of  vice  and  crime 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      93 

seeks  naturally  that  part  of  a  town  where  the  poorest 
houses  are,  and  the  most  saloons,  and  the  greatest 
darkness  both  physical  and  moral. 

"  If  there  is  a  part  of  this  town  which  needs  to  be 
lifted  up  and  cleaned  and  healed  and  inspired  by  the 
presence  of  the  Church  of  Christ  it  is  right  there 
where  there  is  no  church.  The  people  on  B.  Street 
and  for  six  or  eight  blocks  each  side  know  the  gos- 
pel. They  have  large  numbers  of  books  and  papers 
and  much  Christian  literature.  They  have  been 
taught  Bible  truths;  they  are  familiar  with  them. 
Of  what  value  then  is  it  to  continue  to  support  on 
this  short  street,  so  near  together,  seven  churches  of 
as  many  different  denominations  which  have  for 
their  members  the  respectable,  moral  people  of  the 
town?  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  well-to-do, 
respectable  people  do  not  need  the  influence  of  the 
Church  and  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  But  they 
can  get  these  privileges  without  such  a  fearful  waste 
of  material  and  power.  If  we  had  only  three  or  four 
churches  on  this  street  they  would  be  enough.  We 
are  wasting  our  strength  with  the  present  arrange- 
ment. We  are  giving  the  rich  and  the  educated 
and  well-to-do  people  seven  times  as  much  church 
as  we  are  giving  the  poor,  the  ignorant,  and  the 
struggling  workers  in  the  tenement  district.  There 
is  no  question,  there  can  be  no  question,  that  all 
this  is  wrong.  It  is  opposed  to  every  principle 
that  Christ  advocated.  And  in  the  face  of  these 
plain  facts  which  no  one  can  dispute  there  is  a  duty 
before  these  churches  on  this  street  which  cannot  be 


94      THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

denied  without  denying  the  very  purpose  of  a 
church.  It  is  that  duty  which  I  am  now  going  to 
urge  upon  this  Calvary  Church. 

"  It  has  been  said  by  some  of  the  ministers  and 
members  of  the  churches  that  we  might  combine  in 
an  effort  and  build  a  large  and  commodious  mis- 
sion in  the  tenement  district.  But  that,  to  my 
mind,  would  not  settle  the  problem  at  all,  as  it 
should  be  settled.  It  is  an  easy  and  a  lazy  thing 
for  church- members  to  put  their  hands  in  their 
pockets  and  say  to  a  few  other  church-members, 
'  We  will  help  build  a  mission,  if  you  will  run  it 
after  it  is  up ;  we  will  attend  our  church  up-town 
here,  while  the  mission  is  worked  for  the  poor 
people  down  there.'  That  is  not  what  will  meet 
the  needs  of  the  situation.  What  that  part  of 
Milton  needs  is  the  Church  of  Christ  in  its  mem- 
bers, —  the  whole  Church,  on  the  largest  possible 
scale.  What  I  am  now  going  to  propose,  there- 
fore, is  something  which  I  believe  Christ  would 
advocate,  if  not  in  the  exact  manner  I  shall  explain, 
at  least  in  the  same  spirit." 

Phillip  paused  a  moment  and  looked  out  over  the 
congregation  earnestly.  The  expectation  of  the 
people  was  roused  almost  to  the  point  of  a  sensa- 
tion as  he  went  on. 

"  I  have  consulted  with  competent  authorities, 
and  they  say  that  our  church  building  here  could  be 
moved  from  its  present  foundation  without  serious 
damage  to  the  structure.  A  part  of  it  would  have 
to  be  torn  down  to  assist  the  moving,  but  it  could 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      95 

easily  be  replaced.  The  expense  would  not  be  more 
than  we  could  readily  meet.  We  are  out  of  debt, 
and  the  property  is  free  from  incumbrance.  What  I 
propose,  therefore,  is  a  very  simple  thing,  —  that  we 
move  our  church  edifice  down  into  the  heart  of  the 
tenement  district,  where  we  can  buy  a  suitable  lot 
for  a  comparatively  small  sum,  and  at  once  begin 
the  work  of  a  Christian  church  in  the  very  neighbor- 
hood where  such  work  is  most  needed. 

"  There  are  certain  objections  to  this  plan.  I 
think  they  can  be  met  by  the  exercise  of  the  Christ 
spirit  of  sacrifice  and  love.  A  great  many  members 
will  not  be  able  to  go  that  distance  to  attend  service, 
any  more  than  the  people  there  at  present  can  well 
come  up  here.  But  there  are  six  churches  left  on 
B.  Street.  What  is  to  hinder  any  Christian  member 
of  Calvary  Church  from  working  and  holding  fel- 
lowship with  those  churches,  if  he  cannot  put  in  his 
service  in  the  tenement  district?  None  of  those 
churches  are  crowded  ;  they  will  welcome  the  advent 
of  more  members.  But  the  main  strength  of  the 
plan  which  I  propose  lies  in  the  fact  that  if  it  be 
done,  it  will  be  a  live  illustration  of  the  eagerness  of 
the  Church  to  reach  and  save  men.  The  very  sight 
of  our  church  moving  down  off  this  street  to  the 
lower  part  of  the  town  will  be  an  object  lesson  to 
the  people ;  and  the  Church  will  at  once  begin  to 
mean  something  to  them.  Once  established  there, 
we  can  work  from  it  as  a  centre.  The  distance 
ought  to  be  no  discouragement  to  any  healthy  per- 
son. There  is  not  a  young  woman  in  this  church 


g6       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

that  is  in  the  habit  of  dancing  who  does  not  make 
twice  as  many  steps  during  an  evening  dancing 
party  as  would  be  necessary  to  take  her  to  the  tene- 
ment district  and  back  again.  Surely  any  Christian 
church-member  is  as  willing  to  endure  fatigue,  and 
sacrifice  as  much  time  to  help  to  make  men  and 
women  better,  as  he  is  to  have  a  good  time  himself. 
Think  for  a  moment  what  this  move  which  I  pro- 
pose would  mean  to  the  life  of  this  town,  and  to  our 
own  Christian  growth  !  At  present  we  go  to  church 
and  listen  to  a  good  choir,  we  listen  to  preaching, 
we  go  home  again,  we  have  a  pleasant  Sunday- 
school,  we  are  all  comfortable  and  well  clothed  here 
and  enjoy  our  services,  we  are  not  disturbed  by  the 
sight  of  disagreeable  or  uncongenial  people.  But  is 
that  Christianity?  Where  do  the  service  and  the 
self-denial  and  the  working  for  men's  souls  come 
in  ?  Ah,  my  dear  brothers  and  sisters,  what  is  this 
church  really  doing  for  the  salvation  of  men  in  this 
place  ?  Is  it  Christianity  merely  to  have  a  comfort- 
able church  and  go  to  it  once  or  twice  a  week  to 
enjoy  nice  music  and  listen  to  preaching,  and  then 
go  home  to  a  good  dinner?  What  have  we  sacri- 
ficed? What  have  we  denied  ourselves?  What 
have  we  done  to  show  the  poor  or  the  sinful  that  we 
care  anything  for  their  souls,  or  that  Christianity  is 
anything  but  a  comfortable,  select  religion  for  those 
who  can  afford  the  good  things  of  the  world?  What 
has  the  church  in  Milton  done  to  make  the  working- 
man  here  feel  that  it  is  an  institution  that  throbs 
with  the  brotherhood  of  man?  And  what  do  we 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 


97 


know  as  a  church  of  the  problems  that  face  the 
tenement- dwellers  and  the  wage-earners?  But  sup- 
pose we  actually  move  our  church  down  there  and 
then  go  there  ourselves  week-days  and  Sundays  to 
work  for  the  uplifting  of  immortal  beings.  Shall 
we  not  then  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that 
we  are  at  least  trying  to  do  something  more  than 
enjoy  our  church  all  by  ourselves?  Shall  we  not  be 
able  to  hope  that  we  have  at  least  attempted  to  obey 
the  spirit  of  our  sacrificing  Lord,  who  commanded 
his  disciples  to  go  and  make  disciples  of  the  nations  ? 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  plan  I  propose  is  a  Christian 
plan.  If  the  churches  in  this  neighborhood  were 
not  so  numerous,  if  the  circumstances  were  differ- 
ent, it  might  not  be  wise  or  necessary  to  do  what  I 
propose.  But  as  the  facts  are,  I  solemnly  believe 
that  this  church  has  an  opportunity  before  it  to 
show  Milton  and  the  other  churches  and  the  world 
that  it  is  willing  to  do  an  unusual  thing  if  it  has 
within  it  the  spirit  of  complete  willingness  to  reach 
and  lift  up  mankind  in  the  way  that  will  do  it  best 
and  most  speedily.  If  individuals  are  commanded 
to  sacrifice  and  endure  for  Christ's  sake  and  king- 
dom, I  do  not  know  why  organizations  should  not 
do  the  same.  And  in  this  instance  something  on  a 
large  scale,  something  that  represents  large  sacrifice, 
something  that  will  convince  the  people  of  the  love 
of  man  for  man,  is  the  only  thing  that  will  strike 
deep  enough  into  the  problem  of  the  tenement 
district  in  Milton  to  begin  to  solve  it  in  any  satis- 
factory or  Christian  way. 

7 


98      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  I  do  not  expect  the  church  to  act  on  my  plan 
without  due  deliberation.  I  have  arrived  at  my 
own  conclusions  after  carefully  going  over  the  entire 
ground.  And  in  the  sight  of  all  the  need  and 
degradation  of  the  people  and  in  the  light  of  all 
that  Christ  has  made  clear  to  be  our  duty  as  his 
disciples,  there  is  but  one  path  open  to  us.  If  we 
neglect  to  follow  him  as  he  beckons  us,  I  believe  we 
shall  neglect  the  one  opportunity  of  Calvary  Church 
to  put  itself  in  the  position  of  the  true  Church  of  the 
crucified  Lamb  of  God,  who  did  not  please  himself, 
who  came  to  minister  to  others,  who  would  certainly 
approve  of  any  steps  his  Church  on  earth  in  this  age 
might  honestly  take  to  reach  men  and  love  them 
and  become  to  them  the  helper  and  savior  and 
life-giver  which  the  great  Head  of  the  Church 
truly  intended  we  should  be.  I  leave  this  plan 
which  I  have  proposed  before  you,  for  your  Christian 
thought  and  prayer.  And  may  the  Holy  Spirit 
guide  us  all  into  all  the  truth.  Amen." 

If  Phillip  had  deliberately  planned  to  create  a 
sensation,  he  could  not  have  done  anything  more 
radical  to  bring  it  about  If  he  had  stood  on 
the  platform  and  fired  a  gun  into  the  audience  it 
would  not  have  startled  the  members  of  Calvary 
Church  more  than  this  calm  proposal  to  them  that 
they  move  their  church  building  a  mile  away  from 
its  aristocratic  surroundings.  Nothing  that  he  had 
said  in  his  previous  sermons  had  provoked  such  a 
spirit  of  opposition.  This  time  the  church  was 
roused.  Feelings  of  astonishment,  indignation,  and 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      99 

alarm  agitated  the  members  of  Calvary  Church. 
Some  of  them  gathered  about  Phillip  at  the  close 
of  the  service. 

"  It  will  not  be  possible  to  do  this  thing  you  pro- 
pose, Brother  Strong,"  said  one  of  the  deacons,  a 
leading  member  and  a  man  who  had  defended 
Phillip  once  or  twice  against  public  criticism. 

"Why  not?"  asked  Phillip,  simply.  He  was 
exhausted  with  his  effort  that  morning,  but  felt  that 
a  crisis  of  some  sort  had  been  precipitated  by  his 
message,  and  so  he  welcomed  this  show  of  interest 
which  his  sermon  had  aroused. 

"  The  church  will  not  agree  to  such  a  thing." 

"A  number  of  them  favor  the  step,"  replied 
Phillip,  who  had  talked  over  the  matter  fully  with 
many  in  the  church. 

"  A  majority  will  vote  against  it." 

"  Yes,  an  overwhelming  majority !  "  said  one 
man.  "  I  know  a  good  many  who  would  not  be 
able  to  go  that  distance  to  attend  church,  and  they 
certainly  would  not  join  any  other  church  on  the 
street.  I  know  for  one  /  would  n't." 

"Not  if  you  thought  Christ's  kingdom  in  this 
town  would  be  advanced  by  it?"  asked  Phillip, 
turning  to  this  man  with  a  directness  that  was  almost 
bluntness. 

"  I  don't  see  how  that  would  be  a  test  of  my 
Christianity." 

"  That  is  not  the  question,"  said  one  of  the  trus- 
tees, who  had  the  reputation  of  being  a  very  shrewd 
business  man.  "The  question  is  concerning  the 


100      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

feasibility  of  moving  this  property  a  mile  into  the 
poorest  part  of  the  town  and  then  maintaining  it 
there.  In  my  opinion  it  cannot  be  done.  The 
expenses  of  the  organization  cannot  be  kept  up. 
We  should  lose  some  of  our  best  financial  sup- 
porters. Mr.  Strong's  spirit  and  purpose  spring 
from  a  good  motive,  no  doubt,  but  viewed  from  a 
business  point  of  view  the  church  in  that  locality 
would  not  be  a  success.  To  my  mind  it  would  be 
a  very  unwise  thing  to  do.  It  would  practically 
destroy  our  organization  here  and  not  really  establish 
anything  there." 

"  I  do  not  believe  we  can  tell  until  we  try,"  said 
Phillip.  "  I  certainly  do  not  wish  the  church  to 
destroy  itself  foolishly.  But  I  do  feel  that  we  ought 
to  do  something  very  positive  and  very  large  to 
define  our  attitude  as  saviors  to  this  community. 
And  moving  the  building  as  I  propose  has  the 
advantage  of  being  a  definite  practical  step  in  the 
direction  of  a  Christlike  use  of  our  powers  .as  a 
church." 

There  was  more  talk  of  the  same  sort  but  it  was 
plainly  felt  by  Phillip  that  the  plan  he  had  proposed 
was  distasteful  to  the  greater  part  of  the  congrega- 
tion, and  if  the  matter  came  to  a  vote  it  would  be 
defeated.  He  talked  the  plan  over  with  his  trustees 
as  he  had  already  done  before  he  spoke  in  public. 
Four  of  them  were  decided  in  their  objection  to 
the  plan.  Only  one  fully  sustained  Phillip.  During 
the  week  he  succeeded  in  finding  out  that  from  his 
membership  of  five  hundred,  less  than  forty  persons 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      ioi 

were  willing  to  stand  by  him  in  so  radical  a  move- 
ment. And  yet  the  more  Phillip  studied  the  prob- 
lem of  the  town,  the  more  he  was  persuaded  that 
the  only  way  for  the  church  to  make  any  impres- 
sion on  the  tenement  district  was  to  put  itself 
directly  in  touch  with  the  neighborhood.  To  ac- 
complish that  necessity  Phillip  was  not  stubborn. 
He  was  ready  to  adopt  any  plan  that  would  actually 
do  something,  but  every  day  that  he  spent  in  his 
study  of  the  town  he  grew  more  eager  to  have  the 
church  feel  its  opportunity  and  make  Christ  a 
reality  to  those  most  in  need  of  him. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Phillip  was  surprised  one 
evening  by  a  call  from  one  of  the  working-men 
who  had  been  present  and  heard  his  sermon  on 
moving  the  church  into  the  tenement  district. 

"  I  came  to  see  you  particularly,  Mr.  Strong, 
about  getting  you  to  come  down  to  our  hall  some 
evening  next  week  and  give  us  a  talk  on  some 
subject  connected  with  the  signs  of  the  times." 

"  I  '11  come  if  you  think  I  can  do  any  good  that 
way,"  replied  Phillip,  hesitating  a  little. 

"  I  believe  you  can.  The  men  are  beginning 
to  take  to  you,  and  while  they  won't  come  up  to 
church  they  will  turn  out  to  hear  you  down  there." 

"  All  right.     When  do  you  want  me  to  come  ?  " 

"Say  next  Tuesday.  You  know  where  the 
hall  is?" 

Phillip  nodded.  He  had  been  by  it  in  his  walks 
through  that  part  of  Milton. 

The  spokesman  for   the  workmen  expressed  his 


Ib2      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

thanks  and  arose  to  go,  but  Phillip  asked  him  to 
stay  a  few  moments.  He  wanted  to  know  at  first 
hand  what  the  workingmen  would  do  if  the  church 
should  at  any  time  decide  to  act  after  Phillip's  plan. 

"Well,  to  tell  the  truth,  Mr.  Strong,  I  don't 
believe  very  many  of  them  would  join  any  church." 

"  That  is  not  the  question.  Would  they  feel  the 
church  any  more  there  than  where  it  is  now  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  honestly  think  they  would.  They  would 
come  out  to  hear  you." 

"Well,  that  would  be  something,  to  be  sure," 
replied  Phillip,  smiling.  "  But  as  to  the  wisdom 
of  my  plan,  —  how  does  it  strike  you  on  the  whole  ?  " 

"  I  would  like  to  see  it  done.  I  don't  believe  I 
shall,  though." 

"Why?1' 

"  Your  church  won't  agree  to  it." 

"  Maybe  they  will  in  time." 

"  I  hope  they  will.  And  yet  let  me  tell  you,  Mr. 
Strong,  even  if  you  succeeded  in  getting  your 
church  and  people  to  come  into  the  tenement  dis- 
trict you  would  find  plenty  of  people  there  who 
would  n't  go  near  you." 

"  I  suppose  that  is  so.  But  oh,  that  we  might 
do  something ! "  Phillip  clasped  his  hands  over 
his  knee  and  gazed  earnestly  at  the  man  opposite. 
The  man  returned  the  gaze  almost  as  earnestly. 
It  was  the  impersonation  of  the  Church  confronting 
the  laboring  man,  each  in  a  certain  way  asking  the 
other,  "  What  will  the  Church  do  ?  "  And  it  was  a 
noticeable  fact  that  the  minister's  look  revealed 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      103 

more  doubt  and  anxiety  than  the  other  man's  look, 
which  contained  more  or  less  of  indifference  and 
distrust.  Phillip  sighed,  and  his  visitor  soon  after 
took  his  leave. 

So  it  came  about  that  Phillip  Strong  plunged 
into  a  work  which  from  the  time  he  stepped  into 
the  dingy  little  hall  and  faced  the  crowd  peculiar  to 
it  had  a  growing  influence  on  all  his  strange  career, 
which  rapidly  grew  in  strangeness  as  days  came  on. 

He  was  invited  again  and  again  to  address  the 
men  in  that  part  of  Milton.  They  were  almost  all 
mill-employees.  They  had  a  simple  organization 
for  debate  and  discussion  of  questions  of  the  day. 
Gradually  the  crowds  increased  as  Phillip  continued 
to  come,  and  developed  a  series  of  talks  on  Chris- 
tian Socialism.  There  was  standing  room  only.  He 
was  beginning  to  know  a  number  of  the  men  and 
a  strong  affection  was  growing  up  in  their  hearts  for 
him. 

That  was  just  before  the  time  the  trouble  at  the 
mills  broke  out.  He  had  just  come  back  from  the 
hall  where  he  had  now  been  going  every  Tuesday 
evening,  and  where  he  had  spoken  on  his  favorite 
theme,  "  the  meaning  and  responsibility  of  power, 
both  financial  and  moral."  He  had  treated  the 
subject  from  the  Christian  point  of  view  entirely. 
He  had  several  times  roused  his  rude  audience  to 
enthusiasm.  Moved  by  his  theme  and  his  sur- 
roundings he  had  denounced,  with  even  more  than 
usual  vigor,  those  men  of  ease  and  wealth  who  did 
nothing  with  their  money  to  help  their  brothers. 


104      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

He  had  mentioned,  as  he  went  along,  what  great 
responsibility  any  great  power  puts  on  a  man,  and 
had  dealt  in  a  broad  way  with  the  whole  subject  of 
power  in  men  as  a  thing  to  be  used,  and  always  used 
for  the  common  good. 

He  did  not  recall  his  exact  statements,  but  felt  a 
little  uneasy  as  he  walked  home,  for  fear  he  might 
possibly  have  influenced  his  particular  audience 
against  the  rich  as  a  class.  He  had  not  intended 
anything  of  the  kind,  but  had  a  vague  idea  that 
possibly  he  ought  to  have  guarded  some  words  or 
sentences  more  carefully. 

He  had  gone  up  into  his  study  to  finish  some 
work,  when  the  bell  rang  sharply,  and  he  came  down 
to  open  the  door  just  as  Mrs.  Strong  came  in  from 
the  other  room,  where  she  had  been  giving  direc- 
tions to  the  girl,  who  had  gone  upstairs  through  the 
kitchen. 

The  minister  and  his  wife  opened  the  door 
together,  and  one  of  the  neighbors  rushed  into  the 
hall  so  excited  he  could  hardly  speak. 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Strong,  won't  you  go  right  down  to  Mr. 
Winter's  house  at  once?  You  have  more  influence 
with  those  men  than  any  one  around  here  !  " 

"What  men?" 

"  The  men  who  are  going  to  kill  him  if  some  one 
doesn't  stop  it !  " 

"What!"  cried  Phillip,  turning  pale,  not  from 
fear,  but  from  self-reproach  to  think  he  might  have 
made  a  mistake.  "  Who  is  trying  to  kill  him,  — 
the  mill-men?  " 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      105 

"  Yes  !  No  !  I  do  not,  cannot  tell.  But  he  is 
in  great  danger,  and  you  are  the  only  man  in  this 
town  who  can  help  to  save  him.  Come  !  " 

Phillip  turned  to  his  wife.  "  Sarah,  it  is  my  duty. 
If  anything  should  happen  to  me  you  know  my  soul 
will  meet  yours  at  the  gates  of  Paradise." 

He  kissed  her,  and  rushed  out  into  the  night. 


CHAPTER  V. 

\  17 HEN  Phillip  reached  the  residence  of  Mr. 
*  *  Winter  he  found  himself  at  once  in  the  midst 
of  a  mob  of  howling  angry  men  who  surged  over  the 
lawn  and  tramped  the  light  snow  that  was  falling 
into  a  muddy  mass  over  the  walks  and  up  the 
veranda  steps.  A  large  electric  lamp  out  in  the 
street  in  front  of  the  house  threw  a  light  over 
the  strange  scene. 

Phillip  wedged  his  way  in  among  the  men,  crying 
out  his  name,  and  asking  for  room  to  be  made  so 
that  he  could  see  Mr.  Winter.  The  crowd,  under 
the  impulse  which  sometimes  moves  excited  bodies 
of  men,  yielded  to  his  request.  There  were  cries  of, 
"  Let  him  have  a  minister  if  he  wants  one ! " 
"  Room  here  for  the  priest !  "  "  Give  the  preacher  a 
chance  to  do  some  praying  where  it's  needed  mighty 
bad  ! "  and  so  on.  Phillip  found  a  way  opened 
for  him  as  he  struggled  toward  the  house,  and  he 
hurried  forward  fearing  some  great  trouble,  but 
hardly  prepared  for  what  he  saw  when  he  reached 
the  steps  of  the  veranda. 

Half  a  dozen  men  had  the  mill-owner  in  their 
grasp,  having  evidently  just  dragged  him  out  of  his 
dining-room.  His  coat  was  half  torn  off,  as  if  there 
had  been  a  struggle.  Marks  of  bloody  fingers 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      107 

stained  his  collar.  His  face  was  white,  and  his  eyes 
filled  with  the  fear  of  death.  Within,  upon  the 
floor,  lay  his  wife,  who  had  fainted.  A  son  and  a 
daughter,  his  two  grown-up  children  clung  terrified 
to  one  of  the  servants,  who  kneeled  half  fainting  her- 
self by  the  side  of  the  mill-owner's  wife.  A  table 
overturned  and  fragments  of  a  late  dinner  scat- 
tered over  the  floor,  a  broken  plate,  the  print  of  a 
muddy  foot  on  the  white  tiling  before  the  open  fire, — 
the  whole  picture  flashed  upon  Phillip  like  a  scene 
out  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  he  almost  rubbed 
his  eyes  to  know  if  he  was  awake  and  in  America 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  He  was  intensely  prac- 
tical, however,  and  the  nature  of  his  duty  never  for 
a  moment  escaped  him.  He  at  once  advanced  and 
said  calmly :  — 

"  What  does  all  this  mean  ?  Why  this  attack  on 
Mr.  Winter?" 

The  moment  Mr.  Winter  saw  Phillip  and  heard 
his  voice  he  cried  out,  trembling :  "  Is  that  you, 
Mr.  Strong  ?  Thank  God  !  Save  me  !  Save  me  ! 
They  are  going  to  kill  me  ! " 

"  Who  talks  of  killing,  or  taking  human  life  con- 
trary to  law  ! "  exclaimed  Phillip,  coming  up  close 
and  placing  his  hand  on  Mr.  Winter's  arm.  "  Men, 
what  are  you  doing  ?  " 

For  a  moment  the  crowd  fell  back  a  little  from 
the  mill-owner,  and  one  of  the  men  who  had  been 
foremost  in  the  attack  replied  with  some  respect, 
although  in  a  sullen  manner,  "  Mr.  Strong,  this  is 
not  a  case  for  your  interference.  This  man  has 


108       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

caused  the  death  of  one  of  his  employees  and  he 
deserves  hanging." 

"  And  hanging  he  will  get !  "  yelled  another.  A 
great  cry  arose.  In  the  midst  of  it  all  Mr.  Winter 
shrieked  out  his  innocence.  "  It  is  all  a  mistake  ! 
They  do  not  know  !  Mr.  Strong,  tell  them  they  do 
not  know ! " 

The  crowd  closed  around  Mr.  Winter  again.  Phil- 
lip knew  enough  about  men  to  know  that  the  mill- 
owner  was  in  genuine  danger.  Most  of  his  assail- 
ents  were  the  foreign  element  in  the  mills.  Many 
of  them  were  under  the  influence  of  liquor.  The 
situation  was  critical.  Mr.  Winter  clung  to  Phillip 
with  the  frantic  clutch  of  a  man  who  sees  only  one 
way  of  escape,  and  clings  to  that  with  mad  eager- 
ness. Phillip  turned  around  and  faced  the  mob. 
He  raised  his  voice,  hoping  to  gain  a  hearing  and 
reason  with  it.  But  he  might  as  well  have  raised 
his  voice  against  a  tornado.  Some  one  threw  a 
handful  of  mud  and  snow  toward  the  prisoner.  In 
an  instant  every  hand  reached  for  the  nearest  missile, 
and  a  shower  of  stones,  muddy  snow-balls,  and 
limbs  torn  from  the  trees  on  the  lawn,  was  rained 
upon  the  house.  Most  of  the  windows  in  the  lower 
story  were  broken.  All  this  time  Phillip  was  eagerly 
remonstrating  with  the  few  men  who  had  their  hands 
on  the  mill-owner.  He  thought  if  he  could  only 
plead  with  them  to  let  Mr.  Winter  go  he  could  slip 
with  him  around  the  end  of  the  veranda  through  a 
side  door  and  take  him  through  the  house  to  a  place 
of  safety.  He  also  knew  that  every  minute  was  pre- 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP   STRONG.       109 

cious,  as  the  police  might  arrive  at  any  moment  and 
change  the  situation. 

But  in  spite  of  his  pleas  the  mill-owner  was  grad- 
ually pushed  and  dragged  down  off  the  veranda 
toward  the  gate.  The  men  tried  to  get  Phillip  out 
of  the  way. 

"We  don't  want  to  harm  you,  sir.  Better  get 
out  of  danger,"  said  the  same  man  who  had  spoken 
before. 

Phillip  for  answer  threw  one  arm  about  Mr. 
Winter,  saying,  "  If  you  kill  him,  you  will  kill  me 
with  him.  You  shall  never  do  this  great  sin  against 
an  innocent  man.  In  the  name  of  God  I  call  on 
every  soul  here  to — " 

But  his  words  were  drowned  in  the  noise  that  fol- 
lowed. The  mob  was  insane  with  fury.  Twice  Mr. 
Winter  was  dragged  off  his  feet  by  those  down  on  the 
walk.  Twice  Phillip  raised  him  to  his  feet,  feeling 
sure  that  if  the  crowd  once  threw  him  down  they 
would  trample  him  to  death.  Once  some  one  threw 
a  rope  over  the  wretched  man's  head.  Phillip 
snatched  it  off  again.  Both  he  and  Mr.  Winter  were 
struck  again  and  again.  Their  clothes  were  torn  into 
tatters.  Mr.  Winter  was  faint  and  reeling.  Only 
his  great  terror  made  his  clutch  on  Phillip  like  that 
of  a  drowning  man. 

At  last  the  crowd  had  dragged  the  two  outside 
the  gate  into  the  street.  Here  they  paused  awhile 
and  Phillip  again  spoke  to  the  mob  :  — 

"  Men,  made  in  God's  image,  listen  to  me  !  Do 
not  take  innocent  life.  If  you  kill  him,  you  kill  me 


HO      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

also.  For  I  will  never  leave  his  side  alive,  and  I 
will  not  permit  such  murder  if  I  can  prevent  it." 

"  Kill  them  both, —  the  bloody  coward  and  the 
priest !  "  yelled  a  voice.  "They  both  belong  to  the 
same  church." 

"  Yes,  hang  'em  !  hang  'em  both  !  "  A  tempest 
of  cries  went  up.  Phillip  towered  up  like  a  giant. 
In  the  light  of  the  street  lamp  he  looked  out  over 
the  great  sea  of  passionate,  brutal  faces  crazed  with 
drink  and  riot,  and  a  great  wave  of  compassionate 
feeling  swept  over  him.  It  was  Christlike  in  its 
yearning  love  for  lost  children.  His  lips  moved  in 
prayer. 

And  just  then  the  outer  circle  of  the  crowd 
seemed  agitated.  It  had  surged  up  nearer  the  light 
with  the  evident  intention  of  hanging  the  mill-owner 
on  one  of  the  cross  pieces  of  a  telegraph  pole  near 
by.  The  rope  had  again  been  thrown  over  his  head. 
Phillip  stood  with  one  arm  about  Mr.  Winter,  and 
with  the  other  hand  stretched  out  in  entreaty,  when 
he  heard  a  pistol-shot,  then  another.  The  entire 
police  department  had  been  summoned,  and  had 
now  arrived.  There  was  a  skirmishing  rattle  of 
shots.  But  the  crowd  began  to  scatter  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  police  force.  Then  those  nearer 
Phillip  began  to  run  as  best  they  could  away  from 
the  officers.  Phillip  and  the  mill-owner  were 
dragged  along  with  the  rest  in  the  growing  confu- 
sion, until,  watching  his  opportunity,  Phillip  pulled 
Mr.  Winter  behind  one  of  the  large  poles  by  which 
the  lights  of  the  street  were  suspended. 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       m 

Here,  sheltered  but  struck  by  many  a  blow, 
Phillip  managed  to  shield  with  his  own  body  the 
man  who  only  a  little  while  before  had  come  into 
his  own  house  and  called  him  a  liar  and  threatened 
to  withdraw  his  church  support,  because  of  the 
preaching  of  Christ's  principles. 

When  finally  the  officers  reached  the  two  men 
Mr.  Winter  was  nearly  dead  from  the  fright.  Phillip 
was  badly  bruised,  but  not  seriously,  and  he  helped 
Mr.  Winter  back  to  the  house.  A  few  of  the 
police  remained  on  guard  the  rest  of  the  night. 
It  was  while  recovering  from  the  effects  of  the 
night's  attack  that  Phillip  little  by  little  learned  of 
the  facts  that  led  up  to  the  assault. 

There  had  been  a  growing  feeling  of  discontent 
in  all  the  mills,  and  it  had  finally  taken  shape  in  the 
Ocean  Mill,  which  was  largely  owned  and  controlled 
by  Mr.  Winter.  The  discontent  arose  from  a  new 
scale  of  wages  submitted  by  the  company.  It  was 
not  satisfactory  to  the  men,  and  the  afternoon  of  that 
evening  on  which  Phillip  had  gone  down  to  the  hall, 
a  committee  of  the  mill  men  had  gone  away  without 
getting  any  satisfaction.  They  could  not  agree  on  the 
proposition  made  by  the  company  and  by  their  own 
labor  organization.  Later  in  the  day  one  of  the 
committee,  under  instructions,  went  to  see  Mr. 
Winter  alone,  and  came  away  from  the  interview 
very  much  excited  and  angry.  He  spent  the  first 
part  of  the  evening  in  a  saloon,  where  he  related  a 
part  of  his  interview  with  the  mill-owner,  and  said 
that  he  had  finally  kicked  him  out  of  the  office. 


112       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

Still  later  in  the  evening  he  told  several  of  the  men 
that  he  was  going  to  see  Mr.  Winter  again,  knowing 
that  on  certain  evenings  he  was  in  the  habit  of  stay- 
ing down  at  the  mill  office  until  nearly  half-past 
nine  for  special  business.  The  mills  were  undergo- 
ing repairs,  and  Mr.  Winter  was  away  from  home 
more  than  usual. 

That  was  the  last  that  any  one  saw  of  the  man 
until,  about  ten  o'clock,  some  one  going  home  past 
the  mill  office  heard  a  man  groaning  at  the  foot  of 
a  new  excavation  at  the  end  of  the  building,  and 
climbing  down  discovered  the  man  who  had  been 
to  see  Mr.  Winter  twice  that  afternoon.  He  had  a 
terrible  gash  in  his  head  and  lived  only  a  few 
minutes  after  he  was  discovered.  To  the  half-dozen 
men  who  stood  over  him  in  the  saloon  near  by, 
where  he  had  been  carried,  he  had  murmured  the 
name  of  "  Mr.  Winter,"  and  had  then  expired. 

A  very  little  enrages  men  already  heated  with 
rum  and  hatred.  The  rumor  spread  like  lightning 
that  the  wealthy  mill- owner  had  killed  one  of  the 
employees  who  had  gone  to  see  him  peaceably  to 
arrange  matters  for  the  men.  He  had  thrown  him 
out  of  the  office  into  one  of  the  new  mill  excavations 
and  left  him  there  to  rot  like  a  dog  in  a  ditch. 
So  the  story  ran  all  through  the  tenement  district, 
and  in  an  incredibly  short  time  the  worst  elements 
in  Milton  were  surging  toward  the  mill- owner's 
house  with  murder  in  their  hearts,  and  the  means  of 
accomplishing  it  in  their  hands. 

Mr.  Winter  had  finished  his  work  at  the   office 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      113 

and  gone  home  to  sit  down  to  a  late  lunch,  as  his 
custom  was,  when  he  was  interrupted  by  the  mob. 
The  rest  of  the  incident  is  connected  with  what  has 
been  told.  The  crowd  seized  him  with  little  cere- 
mony, and  it  was  only  Phillip's  timely  arrival  and  his 
occupying  the  interval  until  the  police  arrived  that 
prevented  a  lynching  in  Milton  that  night.  As  it 
was,  Mr.  Winter  received  a  scare  from  which  it  took 
a  long  time  to  recover.  He  dreaded  to  go  out 
alone  at  night.  He  kept  on  guard  a  special  watch- 
man, and  lived  in  more  or  less  terror  even  then.  It 
was  satisfactorily  proved  in  a  few  days  that  the  man 
who  had  gone  to  see  Mr.  Winter  had  never  reached 
the  office  door.  But  coming  around  the  corner  of 
the  building  where  the  new  work  was  being  done,  he 
had  fallen  off  the  stone  work,  striking  on  a  rock  in 
such  a  way  as  to  produce  a  fatal  wound.  This 
tempered  the  feeling  of  the  workmen  toward  Mr. 
Winter ;  but  unrest  and  discontent  had  seized  on 
every  man  employed  in  the  mills,  and  as  the  winter 
drew  on,  affairs  reached  a  crisis. 

The  difference  between  the  mills  and  the  men 
over  the  scale  of  wages  could  not  be  settled.  The 
men  began  to  talk  about  a  strike.  Phillip  heard  of 
it,  and  at  once,  with  his  usual  frankness  and  boldness, 
spoke  with  downright  plainness  to  the  men.  That 
was  at  the  little  hall  a  week  after  the  attempt  on 
Mr.  Winter's  life.  Phillip's  part  in  that  night's 
event  had  added  to  his  reputation  and  his  popular- 
ity with  the  men.  They  admired  his  courage  and 
his  grit.  Most  of  them  were  ashamed  of  the  whole 
8 


114      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

affair,  especially  after  they  had  sobered  down  and  it 
had  been  proved  that  Mr.  Winter  had  not  touched 
the  man.  So  Phillip  was  welcomed  with  applause 
as  he  came  out  on  the  little  platform  and  looked 
over  the  crowded  room,  seeing  many  faces  there 
that  had  glared  at  him  in  the  mob  a  week  before. 
And  yet  his  heart  told  him  he  loved  these  men,  and 
his  reason  told  him  that  it  was  the  sinner  and  the 
unconverted  that  God  loved.  It  was  a  terrible 
responsibility  to  have  such  men  count  him  popular, 
and  he  prayed  that  wisdom  might  be  given  him  in 
the  approaching  crisis,  especially  as  he  seemed  to 
have  some  real  influence. 

He  had  not  spoken  ten  words  when  some  one 
cried,  "  Come  outside  !  Big  crowd  out  here  want 
to  get  in."  It  was  moonlight  and  not  very  cold,  so 
every  one  moved  out  of  the  hall,  and  Phillip  mounted 
the  steps  of  a  storehouse  near  by  and  spoke  to  a 
crowd  that  filled  up  the  street  in  front  and  for  a 
long  distance  right  and  left.  His  speech  was  very 
brief,  but  it  was  fortified  with  telling  figures,  and  at 
the  close  he  stood  and  answered  a  perfect  torrent  of 
questions.  His  main  counsel  was  against  a  strike  in 
the  present  situation.  He  had  made  himself  famil- 
iar with  the  facts  on  both  sides.  Strikes,  he  argued, 
except  in  very  rare  cases,  were  demoralizing,  —  an 
unhealthy,  disastrous  method  of  getting  justice  done. 
"  Why,  just  look  at  that  strike  in  Preston,  England, 
among  the  cotton  spinners.  There  were  only  660 
operatives,  but  that  strike  before  it  ended  threw  out 
of  employment  over  7,800  weavers  and  other  work- 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      115 

men  who  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
quarrel  of  the  660  men.  In  the  recent  strike  in  the 
cotton  trade  in  Lancashire,  at  the  end  of  the  first 
twelve  weeks  the  operatives  had  lost  in  wages  alone 
$4,500,000.  Four  strikes  that  occurred  in  England 
between  1870  and  1880  involved  a  loss  in  wages  of 
more  than  $25,000,000.  In  2,200  strikes  investi- 
gated lately  by  the  National  Bureau  of  Labor,  it  is 
estimated  that  the  employees  lost  about  $5 1,800,000, 
while  the  employers  lost  only  $30,700,000.  Out  of 
351  strikes  in  England  between  1870  and  1880,  191 
were  lost  by  the  strikers,  71  were  gained,  and  91 
compromised ;  but  in  the  strikes  that  were  success- 
ful, it  took  several  years  to  regain  in  wages  the 
amount  lost  by  the  enforced  idleness  of  the  men." 

There  were  enough  hard-thinking  sensible  men  in 
Phillip's  audience  that  night  to  see  the  force  of  his 
argument.  The  majority,  however,  were  in  favor  of 
a  general  strike  to  gain  their  point  in  regard  to  the 
scale  of  wages.  When  Phillip  went  home  he  carried 
with  him  the  conviction  that  a  general  strike  in  the 
mills  was  pending.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  was 
the  worst  possible  season  of  the  year  for  such  action, 
and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  difference  demanded 
by  the  men  was  a  trifle  compared  with  their  loss  of 
wages  the  very  first  day  of  idleness,  there  was  a 
determination  among  the  leaders  that  the  fifteen 
thousand  men  in  the  mills  should  all  go  out  in  the 
course  of  a  few  days  if  the  demands  of  the  men  in 
the  Ocean  Mill  were  not  granted. 

What  was  the  surprise  of  every  one  in   Milton, 


Il6      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

therefore,  the  very  next  day  when  it  was  announced 
that  every  mill  in  the  great  system  had  shut  down, 
and  not  a  man  of  the  fifteen  thousand  laborers  who 
marched  to  the  buildings  in  the  early  gray  of  the 
winter  morning  found  entrance.  Statements  were 
posted  up  on  the  doors  that  the  mills  were  shut 
down  until  further  notice.  The  mill-owners  had 
stolen,  a  march  on  the  employees,  and  the  big  strike 
was  on ;  but  it  had  been  started  by  Capital,  not  by 
Labor,  and  Labor  went  to  its  tenement  or  congre- 
gated in  the  saloon,  sullen  and  gloomy;  and,  as 
days  went  by  and  the  mills  showed  no  signs  of 
opening,  the  great  army  of  the  unemployed  walked 
the  streets  of  Milton  in  growing  discontent  and  fast 
accumulating  debt  and  poverty. 

Meanwhile  the  trial  of  the  man  arrested  for  shoot- 
ing Phillip  came  on,  and  Phillip  and  his  wife  both 
appeared  as  witnesses  in  the  case.  The  man  was 
convicted,  and  sentenced  to  fifteen  years'  imprison- 
ment. It  has  nothing  special  to  do  with  the  history 
of  Phillip  Strong,  but  may  be  of  interest  to  the 
reader  to  know  that  in  two  years'  time  he  was 
pardoned  out  and  returned  to  Milton  to  open  his 
old  saloon,  where  he  actually  told  more  than  once 
the  story  of  his  attempt  on  the  preacher's  life. 

There  came  on  also  during  those  stormy  times  in 
Milton  the  trial  of  several  of  the  men  arrested  for 
the  assault  on  Mr.  Winter.  Phillip  was  also  sum- 
moned as  a  witness  in  these  cases.  As  always,  he 
frankly  testified  to  what  he  knew  and  saw.  Several 
of  the  accused  were  convicted,  and  sentenced  to 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      117 

short  terms.  But  the  mill-owner,  probably  fearful 
of  revenge  on  the  part  of  the  men,  did  not  push  the 
matter,  and  most  of  the  cases  went  by  default  for 
lack  of  prosecution. 

Mr.  Winter's  manner  toward  Phillip  underwent  a 
change  after  that  memorable  evening  when  the  min- 
ister stood  by  him  at  the  peril  of  his  own  life. 
There  was  a  feeling  of  genuine  respect  mingled 
with  fear  in  the  mill-owner's  deportment  toward 
Phillip.  To  say  that  they  were  warm  friends  would 
be  saying  too  much.  Men  as  widely  different  as 
the  minister  and  the  wealthy  mill-man  do  not  come 
together  on  that  sacred  ground  of  friendship,  even 
where  one  is  indebted  to  the  other  for  his  life.  A 
man  may  save  another  from  hanging  and  still  be 
unable  to  save  him  from  selfishness.  And  the  mill- 
owner  went  his  way  and  Phillip  went  his,  on  a 
different  basis  so  far  as  common  greeting  went,  but 
no  nearer  in  that  oneness  of  aim  in  life  which 
makes  heart-to-heart  communion  possible.  For  the 
time  being,  Mr.  Winter's  hostility  was  submerged 
under  his  indebtedness  to  Phillip.  He  returned  to 
his  own  place  in  the  church  and  contributed  to  the 
financial  support. 

-  One  day  at  the  close  of  a  month,  Phillip  came 
into  the  cosey  parsonage,  and,  instead  of  going  right 
up  to  his  study  as  his  habit  was  when  his  outside 
work  was  done  for  the  day,  he  threw  himself  down 
on  a  couch  by  the  open  fire.  His  wife  was  at  work 
in  the  other  room,  but  she  came  in,  and,  seeing 
Phillip  lying  there,  inquired  what  was  the  matter. 


Il8      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  Nothing,  Sarah,  with  me.  Only  I  'm  sick  at 
heart  with  the  sight  and  knowledge  of  all  this 
wicked  town's  sin  and  misery." 

"  Do  you  have  to  carry  it  all  on  your  shoulders, 
Phillip?" 

"Yes,"  replied  Phillip,  almost  fiercely.  It  was 
not  that  either.  Only,  his  reply  was  like  a  great  sob 
of  conviction  that  he  must  bear  something  of  the 
town's  burden.  He  could  not  help  it. 

Mrs.  Strong  did  not  say  anything  for  a  moment. 
Then,  - 

"  Don't  you  think  you  take  it  too  seriously, 
Phillip?" 

"What?" 

"Other  people's  wrong-doing.  You  are  not 
responsible." 

"Am  I  not?  I  am  my  brother's  keeper.  What 
quantity  of  guilt  may  I  not  carry  into  the  eternal 
kingdom  if  I  do  not  do  what  I  can  to  save  him! 
Oh,  how  can  men  be  so  selfish  ?  Yet  I  am  only  one 
person.  I  cannot  prevent  all  this  suffering  alone." 

"  Of  course  you  can't,  Phillip.  You  wrong  your- 
self to  take  yourself  to  task  so  severely  for  the  sins 
of  others.  But  what  has  stirred  you  up  so  at  this 
time  ?  "  Mrs.  Strong  understood  Phillip  well  enough 
to  know  that  some  particular  case  had  roused  his 
feeling.  He  seldom  yielded  to  such  despondency 
without  some  immediate  practical  reason. 

Phillip  sat  up  on  the  couch  and  clasped  his  hands 
over  his  knee  with  the  eager  earnestness  that  char- 
acterized him  when  he  was  roused. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      119 

"  Sarah,  this  town  slumbers  on  the  smoking  crest 
of  a  volcano.  There  are  more  than  fifteen  thousand 
people  here  in  Milton  out  of  work.  A  great  many 
of  them  are  honest,  temperate  people  who  have 
saved  up  a  little.  But  it  is  nearly  gone.  The  mills 
are  shut  down,  and,  on  the  authority  of  men  who 
ought  to  know,  shut  down  for  all  winter.  The  same 
condition  of  affairs  is  true  in  a  greater  or  less  degree 
in  the  entire  State  and  throughout  the  country  and 
even  the  world.  People  are  suffering  to-day  in  this 
town  for  food  and  clothing  and  fuel  through  no  fault 
of  their  own.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  thousands 
and  even  hundreds  of  thousands  all  over  the  world. 
It  is  an  age  that  calls  for  heroes,  martyrs,  servants, 
saviors.  And  right  here  in  this  town,  where  dis- 
tress walks  the  streets  and  actual  want  already  has 
its  clutch  on  many  a  poor  devil,  society  goes  on 
giving  its  expensive  parties  and  living  in  its  little 
round  of  selfish  pleasure  just  as  if  the  volcano  were 
a  downy  little  bed  of  roses  for  it  to  go  to  sleep  on 
whenever  it  wearies  of  the  pleasure  and  wishes  to 
retire  to  happy  dreams.  Oh,  but  the  bubble  will 
burst  one  of  these  days,  and  then  —  " 

Phillip  swept  his  hand  upward  with  a  fine  gesture, 
and  sunk  back  upon  the  couch,  groaning. 

"  Don't  you  exaggerate  ?  "  The  minister's  wife 
put  the  question  gently. 

"  Not  a  bit !  Not  a  bit !  All  true.  I  am  not 
one  of  the  French  Revolution  fellows,  always  lugging 
in  blood  and  destruction,  and  prophesying  calamity 
to  the  nation  and  the  world  if  it  does  n't  gee  and 


120      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

haw  the  way  I  tell  it  to.  But  I  tell  you,  Sarah,  it 
takes  no  prophet  to  see  that  a  man  who  is  hungry 
and  out  of  work  is  a  dangerous  man  to  have  around. 
And  it  takes  no  very  extraordinary- sized  heart  to 
throb  a  little  with  righteous  wrath  when  in  such 
times  as  these  people  go  right  on  with  their  useless 
luxuries  of  living,  and  spend  as  much  in  a  single 
evening's  entertainment  as  would  provide  a  comfort- 
able living  for  a  whole  month  to  some  deserving 
family." 

"  How  do  you  know  they  do?  " 

"  Well,  I  '11  tell  you.  I  've  figured  it  out.  I  will 
leave  it  to  any  one  of  good  judgment  that  any  one 
of  these  projected  parties  mentioned  here  in  the 
evening  paper,"  Phillip  smoothed  the  paper  out  on 
the  head  of  the  couch,  —  "  any  one  of  them  will  cost 
in  the  neighborhood  of  one  hundred  to  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dollars.  Look  here !  Here's  the 
Goldens'  party,  —  members  of  Calvary  Church. 
They  will  spend  at  least  twenty-five  or  thirty  dollars 
for  flowers ;  and  refreshments  will  cost  fifty  more ; 
and  music  another  twenty-five ;  and  incidentals 
twenty- five  extra,  —  and  so  on.  Is  that  right, 
Sarah,  in  these  times,  and  as  people  ought  to  live 
now?" 

"  But  some  one  gets  the  benefit  of  all  this  money 
spent.  Surely  that  is  help  to  some  of  the  working- 
people." 

"  Yes,  but  how  many  people  are  helped  by  such 
expenditures?  Only  a  select  few,  and  they  are  the 
very  ones  who  are  least  in  need  of  it.  I  say  the 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      12 1 

Christian  people  and  members  of  churches  have  no 
right,  under  the  conditions  that  face  us  as  a  town 
and  a  nation  and  a  world,  I  say  they  have  no  right 
to  indulge  their  selfish  pleasures  to  this  extent  in 
these  ways.  I  know  that  Christ  would  not  approve 
of  it." 

"  You  think  he  would  not,  Phillip." 

"  No,  I  know  he  would  not.  There  is  not  a  par- 
ticle of  doubt  in  my  mind  about  it.  What  right  has 
a  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ  to  spend  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  his  physical  or  sesthetic  pleasures  money 
which  ought  to  be  feeding  the  hungry  bodies  of 
men  or  providing  some  useful  necessary  labor  for 
their  activity  ?  —  I  mean  of  course  those  pleasures 
that  a  man  can  live  without.  In  this  age  of  the 
world  society  ought  to  dispense  with  some  of  its 
accustomed  pleasures  and  deny  itself  for  the  sake 
of  the  great  suffering,  needy  world.  Instead  of  that, 
the  members  of  the  very  Church  of  Christ  on  earth 
spend  more  in  a  single  evening's  entertainment  for 
people  who  don't  need  it  than  they  give  to  the  salva- 
tion of  men  in  a  whole  year.  I  protest  out  of  the  soul 
God  gave  me  against  such  wicked  selfishness.  And 
I  will  protest  though  society  spurn  me  from  it  as  a 
bigot,  a  puritan,  and  a  boor.  For  society  in  Chris- 
tian America  is  not  Christian  in  this  matter,  —  no, 
not  after  the  Christianity  of  Christ !  " 

"What  can  you  do  about  it,  Phillip?  "  His  wife 
asked  the  question  sadly.  She  had  grown  old  fast 
since  coming  to  Milton.  And  a  presentiment  of 
evil  would,  in  spite  of  her  naturally  cheery  disposi- 


122      THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

tion,  cling  to  her  whenever  she  considered  Phillip 
and  his  work. 

"  I  can  preach  on  it,  and  I  will." 

"  Be  wise,  Phillip.  You  tread  on  difficult  ground 
when  you  enter  society's  realm." 

"  Well,  dear,  I  will  be  as  wise  as  a  serpent  and 
harmless  as  a  dove,  although  I  must  confess  I  never 
knew  just  exactly  how  much  that  verse  meant.  But 
preach  on  it  I  must  and  will." 

And  when  the  first  Sunday  of  the  month  came, 
Phillip  did  preach  on  it,  to  the  dismay  of  several 
members  of  his  church  who  were  in  the  habit  of 
giving  entertainments  and  card-parties  on  a  some- 
what elaborate  scale. 

He  had  never  preached  on  the  subject  of  amuse- 
ments, and  he  stated  that  he  wished  it  to  be  plainly 
understood  that  he  was  not  preaching  on  the  sub- 
ject now.  It  was  a  question  which  went  deeper 
than  that,  and  took  hold  of  the  very  first  principles 
of  social  science.  A  single  passage  in  the  sermon 
will  show  the  drift  of  it  all. 

"  We  have  reached  a  time  in  the  history  of  the 
world  when  it  is  the  Christian  duty  of  every  man 
who  calls  himself  a  disciple  of  the  Master  to  live  on 
a  simpler,  less  extravagant  basis.  The  world  has 
been  living  beyond  its  means.  Modern  civilization 
has  been  exorbitant  in  its  demands.  And  every 
dollar  foolishly  spent  to-day  means  suffering  for 
some  one  who  ought  to  be  relieved  by  that  money 
wisely  expended.  An  entertainment  given  by  people 
of  means  to  other  people  of  means  in  these  hard 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      123 

times,  in  which  money  is  lavished  on  flowers,  deli- 
cacies, and  dress,  is  in  my  opinion  an  act  of  which 
Christ  could  not  approve.  I  do  not  mean  to  say 
that  he  would  object  to  the  pleasure  which  flowers, 
delicacies,  and  dress  will  give.  But  he  would  say 
that  it  is  an  unnecessary  enjoyment  and  expense  at 
this  particular  crisis  through  which  we  are  passing. 
He  would  say  that  money  and  time  should  be  given 
where  people  more  in  need  of  them  might  have  the 
benefit.  He  would  say  that  when  a  town  is  in 
the  situation  of  ours  to-day  it  is  not  a  time  for  the 
selfish  use  of  any  material  blessing.  Unless  I  mistake 
the  spirit  of  the  modern  Christ,  if  he  were  here 
to-day  he  would  preach  to  the  whole  world  the 
necessity  of  a  far  simpler,  less  expensive  style  of 
living,  and,  above  all,  actual  self-denial  on  the  part 
of  society  for  the  Brotherhood  of  man.  What  is 
society  doing  now?  What  sacrifices  is  it  making? 
When  it  gives  a  charity  ball,  does  it  not  spend  twice 
as  much  in  getting  up  the  entertainment  to  please 
itself  as  it  makes  for  the  poor  in  whose  behalf  the 
ball  is  given?  Do  you  think  I  am  severe?  Ask 
yourself,  O  member  of  Calvary  Church,  what  has 
been  the  extent  of  your  sacrifice  for  the  world  this 
year  before  you  condemn  me  for  being  too  strict  or 
particular.  It  is  because  we  live  in  such  times  that 
the  law  of  service  presses  upon  us  with  greater  in- 
sistence than  ever.  And  now  more  than  during  any 
of  the  ages  gone,  Christ's  words  ring  in  our  ears 
with  twenty  centuries  of  reverberation,  '  Whosoever 
will  not  deny  himself  and  take  up  his  cross,  he  can- 
not be  my  disciple.'  " 


124      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

Of  all  the  sermons  on  Christ  and  Modern  Society 
which  Phillip  had  thus  far  preached,  none  had  hit  so 
hard  or  been  applied  so  personally  as  this.  The  Gol- 
dens  went  home  from  the  service  in  a  towering  rage. 
"That  settles  Calvary  Church  for  me,"  said  Mrs. 
Golden,  as  she  flung  herself  out  of  the  building 
after  the  service  was  over.  "  I  consider  that  the 
most  insulting  sermon  I  ever  heard  from  any  min- 
ister. It  is  simply  outlandish ;  and  how  the  church 
can  endure  such  preaching  much  longer  is  a  wonder 
to  me.  I  don't  go  near  it  again  while  Mr.  Strong 
is  the  minister  !  "  Phillip  did  not  know  it  yet,  but 
he  was  destined  to  find  out  that  society  carries 
a  tremendous  power  in  its  use  of  the  word  "  out- 
landish," applied  either  to  persons  or  things. 

When  the  evening  service  was  over,  Phillip,  as 
his  habit  was,  lay  down  on  the  couch  in  front  of  the 
open  fire  until  the  day's  excitement  had  subsided  a 
little.  It  was  almost  the  only  evening  in  the  week 
when  he  gave  himself  up  to  complete  rest  of  mind 
and  body. 

He  had  been  lying  there  about  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  when  Mrs.  Strong,  who  had  been  moving  the 
plants  back  from  one  of  the  front  windows  and  had 
been  obliged  to  raise  a  curtain,  stepped  back  into 
the  room  with  an  exclamation. 

"  Phillip  !  There  is  some  one  walking  back  and 
forth  in  front  of  the  house !  I  have  heard  the 
steps  ever  since  we  came  home.  And  just  now  I 
saw  a  man  stop  and  look  in  here.  Who  can  it 
be?" 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      125 

"  Maybe  it 's  the  man  with  the  burglar's  lantern 
come  back  to  get  his  knife,"  said  Phillip,  who  had 
always  made  a  little  fun  of  that  incident  as  his  wife 
had  told  it.  However,  he  rose  and  went  over  to  the 
window.  Sure  enough,  there  was  a  man  out  on  the 
sidewalk  looking  straight  at  the  house.  He  was 
standing  perfectly  still. 

Phillip  and  his  wife  stood  by  the  window  looking 
at  the  figure  outside,  and,  as  it  did  not  move  away,  at 
last  Phillip  grew  a  little  impatient  and  went  to  the 
door  to  open  it  and  ask  the  man  what  he  meant  by 
staring  into  people's  houses  that  fashion. 

"Now,  Phillip,  do  be  careful,  won't  you?  "en- 
treated his  wife,  anxiously. 

"  Yes,  I  presume  it  is  some  tramp  or  other  want- 
ing food.  There  's  no  danger,  I  know." 

Phillip  flung  the  door  wide  open  and  called  out  in 
his  clear,  hearty  voice  :  — 

"Anything  you  want,  man?  Come  up  and  ring 
the  bell  if  you  want  to  get  in  and  know  us,  instead  of 
standing  there  on  the  walk  catching  cold  and  mak- 
ing us  wonder  who  you  are." 

In  response  to  this  frank  and  informal  invitation 
the  figure  came  forward  and  slowly  mounted  the 
steps  of  the  porch.  As  the  face  came  into  view 
more  clearly,  Phillip  started  and  fell  back  a  little. 

It  was  not  because  the  face  was  that  of  an  enemy, 
or  because  it  was  repulsive,  or  because  he  recognized 
an  old  acquaintance.  It  was  a  face  he  had  never  to 
his  knowledge  seen  before.  Yet  the  impulse  to  start 
back  before  it  seemed  to  spring  from  the  recollec- 


126       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

tion  of  just  such  a  countenance  moving  over  his 
spirit  when  he  was  in  prayer  or  in  trouble.  It  all 
passed  in  a  second's  time  and  then  he  confronted 
the  man  as  a  complete  stranger. 

There  was  nothing  remarkable  about  him.  He 
was  poorly  dressed  and  carried  a  small  bundle. 
He  looked  cold  and  tired.  Phillip,  who  never  could 
resist  the  mute  appeal  of  distress  in  any  form, 
reached  out  his  hand  and  said  kindly,  "  Come,  my 
brother,  you  look  cold  and  weary.  Come  in  and 
sit  down  before  the  fire,  and  we  '11  have  a  bite  of 
lunch.  I  was  just  beginning  to  think  of  having 
something  to  eat,  myself." 

Phillip's  wife  looked  a  little  remonstrance,  but 
Phillip  did  not  see  it,  and  wheeling  an  easy  chair 
before  the  fire  he  made  the  man  sit  down,  and  pull- 
ing up  a  rocker  he  placed  himself  near  him. 

The  stranger  seemed  a  little  surprised  at  the 
action  of  Phillip,  but  made  no  resistance.  He  took 
off  his  hat  and  disclosed  a  head  of  hair  white  as 
snow,  and  said,  in  a  voice  that  sounded  singularly 
sweet  and  true  :  — 

"You  do  me  much  honor,  sir.  The  fire  feels 
good  this  chilly  evening,  and  the  food  will  be  very 
acceptable.  And  I  have  no  doubt  you  have  a  good 
warm  bed  that  I  could  occupy  for  the  night." 

Phillip  stared  hard  at  his  unexpected  guest,  and 
his  wife  who  had  started  out  of  the  room  to  get  the 
lunch,  shook  her  head  vigorously  as  she  stood  be- 
hind the  visitor,  as  a  sign  that  Phillip  should  refuse 
such  a  strange  request.  Phillip  was  taken  aback  a 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      127 

little,  and  he  looked  puzzled.  The  words  were 
uttered  in  the  utmost  simplicity. 

"Why,  yes,  we  can  arrange  that  all  right,"  he 
said.  "  There  is  a  spare  room,  and  —  excuse  me  a 
moment  while  I  go  and  help  to  get  our  lunch." 
Phillip's  wife  was  telegraphing  to  him  to  come  into 
the  other  room  and  he  obediently  got  up  and 
went. 

"Now,  Phillip,"  whispered  his  wife  when  they 
were  out  in  the  dining-room,  "  You  know  that  is  a 
risky  thing  to  do.  You  are  all  the  time  inviting  all 
kinds  of  characters  in  here.  We  can't  keep  this 
man  all  night.  Who  ever  heard  of  such  a  thing  as 
a  perfect  stranger  coming  out  with  a  request  like 
that  ?  I  believe  the  man  is  crazy.  It  certainly  will 
not  do  to  let  him  stay  here  all  night." 

Phillip  looked  puzzled. 

"  I  declare  it  is  strange  !  He  does  n't  appear 
like  an  ordinary  tramp.  But  somehow  I  don't 
think  he 's  crazy.  Why  should  n't  we  let  him  have 
the  bed  in  the  room  off  the  east  parlor.  I  can 
light  the  fire  in  the  stove  there  and  make  him 
comfortable." 

"  But  we  don't  know  who  he  is.  Phillip,  you  let 
your  sympathies  run  away  with  your  judgment." 

"  Well,  little  woman,  let  me  go  in  and  talk  with 
him  a  while.  You  get  the  lunch,  and  we  '11  see 
about  the  rest  afterward." 

So  Phillip  went  back  and  sat  down  again.  He 
was  hardly  seated  when  his  visitor  said  :  — 

"  If  your  wife  objects  to  my  staying  here  to-night 


128       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

of  course  I  don't  wish  to.  I  don't  feel  comfortable 
to  remain  where  I  'm  not  welcome." 

"  Oh,  you  're  perfectly  welcome,"  said  Phillip, 
hastily,  with  some  embarrassment,  while  his  strange 
visitor  went  on  :  — 

"  I  'm  not  crazy,  only  a  little  odd,  you  know. 
Perfectly  harmless.  It  will  be  perfectly  safe  for  you 
to  keep  me  over  night." 

The  man  spread  his  white  hands  out  before  the 
fire,  while  Phillip  sat  and  watched  him  with  a  certain 
fascination  new  to  his  interest  in  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men. 

Mrs.  Strong  brought  in  a  substantial  lunch  of  cold 
meat,  bread  and  butter,  milk  and  fruit,  and  at 
Phillip's  request  placed  it  on  a  table  in  front  of  the 
open  fire,  where  he  and  his  remarkable  guest  ate  like 
hungry  men. 

It  was  after  this  lunch  had  been  eaten  and  the 
table  removed  that  a  scene  occurred  which  would 
be  incredible  if  its  reality  and  truthfulness  did  not 
compel  us  to  record  it  as  a  part  of  the  life  of  Phillip 
Strong.  No  one  will  wish  to  deny  the  power  and 
significance  of  this  event  as  it  is  unfolded  in  the 
movement  of  this  story. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

"  T    HEARD    your   sermon   this   morning,"    said 

•*•  Phillip's  guest,  while  Mrs.  Strong  was  remov- 
ing the  table  to  the  dining-room. 

"  Did  you?  "  asked  Phillip,  because  he  could  not 
think  of  anything  wiser  to  say. 

"Yes,"  said  the  strange  visitor,  simply.  He  was 
so  silent  after  saying  this  one  word  that  Phillip  did 
what  he  was  not  in  the  habit  of  doing.  He  always 
shrank  back  sensitively  from  asking  for  an  opinion 
of  his  preaching  from  any  one  except  his  wife.  But 
now  he  could  not  help  saying,  — 

"  What  did  you  think  of  it?  " 

"  It  was  one  of  the  best  sermons  I  ever  heard. 
But  somehow  it  did  not  sound  sincere." 

"  What !  "  exclaimed  Phillip,  almost  angrily.  If 
there  was  one  thing  he  felt  sure  about,  it  was  the 
sincerity  of  his  preaching.  Then  he  checked  his 
feeling,  as  he  thought  how  foolish  it  would  be  to  get 
angry  at  a  passing  tramp,  who  was  probably  a  little 
out  of  his  mind.  Yet  the  man's  remark  had  a 
strange  power  to  Phillip.  He  tried  to  shake  it  off 
as  he  looked  harder  at  him.  The  man  looked  over 
at  Phillip  and  repeated  gravely,  shaking  his  head, 
"Not  sincere." 

Mrs.  Strong  came  back  into  the  room,  and 
Phillip  motioned  her  to  sit  down  near  him  while 
9 


130       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

he  said,  "And  what  makes  you  think  I  was  not 
sincere?  " 

"  You  said  the  age  in  which  we  lived  demanded 
that  people  live  in  a  far  simpler,  less  extravagant 
style." 

"Yes,  that  is  what  I  said.  I  believe  it,  too," 
replied  Phillip,  clasping  his  hands  over  his  knee 
and  gazing  at  his  singular  guest  with  earnestness. 
The  man's  thick  white  hair  glistened  in  the  open 
firelight  like  spun  glass. 

"  And  you  said  that  Christ  would  not  approve  of 
people  spending  money  for  flowers,  food,  and  dress 
on  those  who  did  not  need  it,  when  it  could  more 
wisely  be  expended  for  the  benefit  of  those  who 
were  in  want." 

"  Yes ;  those  were  not  my  exact  words,  but  that 
was  my  idea." 

"  Your  idea.  Just  so.  And  yet  we  have  had  here 
in  this  little  lunch,  or,  as  you  called  it,  a  '  bite  of 
something,'  three  different  kinds  of  meat,  two  kinds 
of  bread,  hothouse  grapes,  and  the  richest  kind  of 
milk." 

The  man  said  all  this  in  the  quietest,  most  calm 
manner  possible ;  and  Phillip  stared  at  him,  more 
assured  than  ever  that  he  was  a  little  crazy.  Mrs. 
Strong  looked  amused,  and  said,  "  You  seemed  to 
enjoy  the  lunch  pretty  well."  The  man  had  eaten 
with  a  zest  that  was  redeemed  from  greediness 
only  by  a  delicacy  of  manner  that  no  tramp  ever 
possessed. 

"  My  dear  madam,"  said  the  man,  "  perhaps  this 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       131 

was  a  case  where  the  food  was  given  to  one  who 
stood  really  in  need  of  it." 

Phillip  started  as  if  he  had  suddenly  caught  a 
meaning  from  the  man's  words  he  had  not  before 
heard  in  them. 

"  Do  you  think  it  was  an  extravagant  lunch, 
then?"  he  asked  with  a  very  slight  laugh. 

The  man  looked  straight  at  Phillip,  and  replied 
slowly,  "  Yes,  for  the  times  in  which  we  live  !  " 

A  sudden  silence  fell  on  that  group  of  three  in 
the  parlor  of  the  parsonage,  lighted  up  by  the  soft 
glow  of  the  coal  fire.  No  one  except  a  person 
thoroughly  familiar  with  the  real  character  of  Phillip 
Strong  could  have  told  why  that  silence  fell  on  him 
instead  of  a  careless  laugh  at  the  crazy  remark  of 
a  half-witted  stranger  tramp.  Just  how  long  the 
silence  lasted,  Phillip  did  not  know.  Only,  when  it 
was  broken  he  found  himself  saying,  — 

"  Man,  who  are  you  ?  Where  are  you  from  ? 
And  what  is  your  name?" 

His  guest  turned  his  head  a  little,  and  replied, 
"When  you  called  me  in  here  you  stretched  out 
your  hand  and  called  me  '  Brother.'  Just  now  you 
called  me  by  the  great  term,  '  Man.'  These  are 
my  names ;  you  may  call  me  '  Brother  Man.'  " 

"  Well,  then, '  Brother  Man,'  "  said  Phillip,  smiling 
a  little  to  think  of  the  very  strangeness  of  the  whole 
affair,  "  your  reason  for  thinking  I  was  not  sincere 
in  my  sermon  this  morning  was  because  of  the  ex- 
travagant lunch  this  evening?  " 

"  Not  altogether.   There  are  other  reasons."   The 


132       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP   STRONG. 

man  suddenly  bowed  his  head  between  his  hands, 
and  Phillip's  wife  whispered  to  him,  "  Phillip,  what  is 
the  use  of  talking  with  a  crazy  man?  You  are  tired, 
and  it  is  time  to  put  out  the  lights  and  go  to  bed. 
Get  him  out  of  the  house  now  as  soon  as  you  can." 

The  stranger  raised  his  head  and  went  on  talking 
just  as  if  he  had  not  broken  off  abruptly. 

"  Other  reasons.  In  your  sermon  you  tell  people 
they  ought  to  live  less  luxuriously.  You  point  them 
to  the  situation  in  this  town,  where  thousands  of 
men  are  out  of  work.  You  call  attention  to  the 
great  poverty  and  distress  all  over  the  world,  and 
you  say  the  times  demand  that  people  live  far  sim- 
pler, less  extravagant  lives.  And  yet  here  you  live 
yourself  like  a  prince.  Like  a  prince,"  he  repeated, 
after  a  peculiar  gesture,  which  seemed  to  include 
not  only  what  was  in  the  room  but  all  that  was  in 
the  house. 

Phillip  glanced  at  his  wife  as  people  do  when 
they  suspect  a  third  person  being  out  of  his  mind, 
and  saw  that  her  expression  was  very  much  like  his 
own  feeling,  though  not  exactly.  Then  they  both 
glanced  around  the  room. 

It  certainly  did  look  luxurious,  even  if  not 
princely.  The  parsonage  was  an  old  mansion 
which  had  once  belonged  to  a  wealthy  but  eccen- 
tric sea-captain.  He  had  built  to  please  himself, 
something  after  the  colonial  fashion ;  and  large 
square  rooms,  generous  fireplaces  with  quaint 
mantels,  and  tiling,  and  hard-wood  floors  gave 
the  house  an  appearance  of  solid  comfort  that 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       133 

approached  luxury.  The  church  in  Milton  had  pur- 
chased the  property  from  the  heirs,  who  had  be- 
come involved  in  ruinous  speculation  and  parted 
with  the  house  for  a  sum  little  representing  its 
real  worth.  It  had  been  changed  a  little,  and 
modernized  with  new  heating  apparatus,  although 
the  old  fireplaces  still  remained ;  and  one  spare 
room,  an  annex  to  the  house  proper,  had  been 
added  recently.  There  was  an  air  of  decided 
comfort  bordering  on  luxury  in  the  different  pieces 
of  furniture  and  the  whole  furnishing  of  the  room. 

"  You  understand,"  said  Phillip,  as  his  glance 
travelled  back  to  his  visitor,  "  that  this  house  is  not 
mine.  It  belongs  to  my  church.  It  is  the  parson- 
age, and  I  am  simply  living  in  it  as  the  minister." 

"  Yes,  I  understand.  You,  a  minister,  and  living 
in  this  princely  house  while  other  people  have  not 
where  to  lay  their  heads." 

Again  Phillip  felt  the  same  temptation  to  anger 
steal  into  him,  and  again  he  checked  himself  at  the 
thought :  "  The  man  is  certainly  insane.  The  whole 
thing  is  simply  absurd.  I  will  get  rid  of  him.  And 
yet—" 

He  could  not  shake  off  a  strange  and  powerful 
impression  which  the  stranger's  words  had  made 
upon  him.  Crazy  or  not,  he  had  hinted  at  the 
possibility  of  an  insincerity  on  Phillip's  part,  which 
made  him  restless.  Phillip  determined  to  question 
him  and  see  if  he  really  would  develop  a  streak  of 
insanity  that  would  justify  him  in  getting  rid  of  him 
for  the  night. 


134       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  Brother  Man,"  he  said,  using  the  term  his  guest 
had  given  him,  "  do  you  think  I  am  living  too  ex- 
travagantly? " 

"  Yes,  in  these  times  and  after  such  a  sermon." 

"What  would  you  have  me  do?  "  Phillip  asked 
the  question  half  seriously,  half  amused  at  himself 
for  asking  advice  from  such  a  source. 

"  Do  as  you  preach  others  ought  to." 

Again  that  silence  fell  over  the  room.  And 
again  Phillip  felt  the  same  impression  of  power  in 
the  strange  man's  words. 

The  "  Brother  Man,"  as  he  wished  to  be  called, 
bowed  his  head  between  his  hands  again ;  and 
Mrs.  Strong  whispered  to  Phillip  :  "  Now  it  is  cer- 
tainly worse  than  foolish  to  keep  this  up  any  longer. 
The  man  is  evidently  insane.  We  cannot  keep  him 
here  all  night.  He  will  certainly  do  something  ter- 
rible. Get  rid  of  him,  Phillip.  This  may  be  a  trick 
on  the  part  of  the  whiskey  men." 

Never  in  all  his  life  had  Phillip  been  so  puzzled 
to  know  what  to  do  with  a  human  being.  Here 
was  one,  the  strangest  he  had  ever  met,  who  had 
come  into  his  house  ;  it  is  true  he  had  been  invited, 
but  once  within  he  had  invited  himself  to  stay  all 
night,  and  then  had  accused  his  entertainer  of 
living  too  extravagantly  and  called  him  an  insincere 
preacher.  Add  to  all  this  the  singular  fact  that  he 
had  declared  his  name  to  be  "  Brother  Man,"  and 
that  he  spoke  with  a  calmness  that  was  the  very 
incarnation  of  peace,  and  Phillip's  wonder  reached 
its  limit. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG       135 

In  response  to  his  wife's  appeal  Phillip  rose  ab- 
ruptly and  went  to  the  front  door ;  he  opened  it, 
and  a  whirl  of  snow  danced  in.  The  wind  had 
changed,  and  the  moan  of  a  coming  heavy  storm 
was  in  the  air. 

The  moment  that  Phillip  opened  the  door  his 
strange  guest  also  rose,  and  putting  on  his  hat 
he  said,  as  he  moved  slowly  towards  the  hall,  "  I 
must  be  going.  I  thank  you  for  your  hospitality, 
madam." 

Phillip  stood  holding  the  door  partly  open.  He 
was  perplexed  to  know  just  what  to  do  or  say. 

"Where  will  you  stay  to-night?  Where  is  your 
home?" 

"  My  home  is  with  my  friends,"  replied  the  man. 
He  laid  his  hand  on  the  door,  opened  it,  and  had 
made  one  step  out  on  the  porch,  when  Phillip, 
seized  with  an  impulse,  laid  his  hand  on  his  arm, 
gently  but  strongly  pulled  him  back  into  the  hall, 
shut  the  door,  and  placed  his  back  against  it. 

"  You  cannot  go  out  into  this  storm  until  I  know 
whether  you  have  a  place  to  go  to  for  the  night." 

The  man  hesitated  curiously,  shuffled  his  feet  on 
the  mat,  put  his  hand  up  to  his  face,  and  passed  it 
across  his  eyes  with  a  gesture  of  great  weariness. 
There  was  a  look  of  loneliness  and  of  unknown  sor- 
row about  his  whole  figure  that  touched  Phillip's 
keenly  sensitive  spirit  irresistibly.  If  the  man  was 
a  little  out  of  his  right  mind,  he  was  probably  harm- 
less. They  could  not  turn  him  out  into  the  night  if 
he  had  nowhere  to  go. 


136       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  Brother  Man,"  said  Phillip,  gently,  "  would  you 
like  to  stay  here  to-night  ?  Have  you  anywhere  else 
to  stay?" 

"  You  are  afraid  I  will  do  harm.  But  no.  See. 
Let  us  sit  down." 

He  laid  his  hat  on  the  table. resumed  his  seat  and 
asked  Phillip  for  a  Bible.  Phillip  handed  him  one. 
He  opened  it  and  read  a  chapter  from  the  Prophet 
Isaiah,  and  then,  sitting  in  the  chair,  bowing  his 
head  between  his  hands,  he  offered  a  prayer  of  such 
wonderful  beauty  and  spiritual  refinement  of  ex- 
pression that  Phillip  and  his  wife  listened  with  awed 
astonishment. 

When  he  had  uttered  the  amen  Mrs.  Strong 
whispered  to  Phillip,  "  Surely  we  cannot  shut  him 
out  into  the  storm.  We  will  give  him  the  spare 
room." 

Phillip  said  not  a  word.  He  at  once  built  up  a 
fire  in  the  room  and  in  a  few  moments  invited  the 
man  into  it. 

"  Brother  Man,"  he  said  simply,  "  stay  here  as  if 
this  were  your  own  house.  You  are  welcome  for 
the  night." 

"Yes,  heartily  welcome,"  said  Phillip's  wife,  as  if 
to  make  amends  for  any  doubts  she  had  felt 
before. 

For  reply  the  "  Brother  Man  "  raised  his  hand 
almost  as  if  in  benediction.  And  they  left  him  to 
his  rest. 

In  the  morning  Phillip  knocked  at  his  guest's  door 
to  waken  him  for  breakfast.  Not  a  sound  could  be 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STKONG.      137 

heard  within.  He  waited  a  little  while  and  then 
knocked  again.  It  was  as  still  as  before.  He 
opened  the  door  softly  and  looked  in. 

To  his  amazement  there  was  no  one  there.  The 
bed  was  made  up  neatly,  everything  in  the  room 
was  in  its  place,  but  the  strange  being  who  had 
called  himself  "  Brother  Man  "  was  gone. 

Phillip  exclaimed,  and  his  wife  came  in. 

"  So  our  queer  guest  has  flown  !  He  must  have 
been  very  still  about  it ;  I  heard  no  noise.  Where 
do  you  suppose  he  is?  And  who  do  you  suppose 
he  is?" 

"  Are  you  sure  there  ever  was  such  a  person, 
Phillip?  Don't  you  think  you  dreamed  all  that 
about  the  '  Brother  Man  '  ?  "  Mrs.  Strong  had  not 
quite  forgiven  Phillip  for  his  sceptical  questioning  of 
the  reality  of  the  man  with  the  lantern  who  had 
driven  the  knife  into  the  desk. 

"  Yes,  it 's  your  turn  now,  Sarah.  Well,  if  our 
Brother  Man  was  a  dream  he  was  the  most  curious 
dream  this  family  ever  had.  And  if  he  was  crazy  he 
was  the  most  remarkable  insane  person  I  ever  saw." 

"  Of  course  he  was  crazy.  All  that  he  said 
about  our  living  so  extravagantly  proves  it." 

"  Do  you  think  he  was  crazy  in  that  particular?  " 
asked  Phillip,  in  a  strange  voice.  His  wife  noticed  it 
at  the  time  but  its  true  significance  did  not  become 
real  to  her  until  afterwards.  He  went  to  the  front 
door  and  found  it  was  unlocked.  Evidently  the 
guest  had  gone  out  that  way.  The  heavy  storm  of 
the  night  had  covered  up  any  possible  signs  of 
footsteps.  It  was  still  snowing  furiously. 


138       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

Phillip  went  into  his  study  for  the  forenoon  as 
usual,  but  he  did  very  little  writing.  His  wife  could 
hear  him  pacing  the  floor  restlessly. 

About  ten  o'clock  he  came  downstairs  and  de- 
clared his  intention  of  going  out  into  the  storm  to 
see  if  he  could  n't  settle  down  to  work  better. 

He  went  out  and  did  not  return  until  the  middle 
of  the  afternoon.  Mrs.  Strong  was  a  little  alarmed. 

"  Where  have  you  been  all  this  time,  Phillip  ?  —  in 
this  terrible  storm  too  !  You  are  a  monument  of 
snow.  Stand  out  here  in  the  kitchen  while  I  sweep 
it  off  you." 

Phillip  obediently  stood  still  while  his  wife  walked 
around  him  with  a  broom,  and  he  good-naturedly 
submitted  to  being  swept  down  "as  if  I  were 
being  worked  into  shape  for  a  snow  man,"  he  said. 

"  Where  have  you  been  ?  Give  an  account  of 
yourself." 

"  I  have  been  seeing  how  some  other  people  live. 
Sarah,  the  Brother  Man  was  not  so  very  crazy,  after 
all.  He  has  more  than  half  converted  me." 

"  Did  you  find  out  anything  about  him?  " 

"Yes,  several  of  the  older  citizens  here  recog- 
nized my  description  of  him.  They  say  he  is  harm- 
less and  has  quite  a  history ;  was  once  a  wealthy 
mill-owner  in  Clinton.  He  wanders  about  the 
country,  living  with  any  one  who  will  take  him  in. 
It  is  a  queer  case  ;  I  must  find  out  more  about 
him.  But  I  'm  hungry ;  can  I  have  a  bite  of 
something?  " 

"  Haven't  you  had  dinner?  " 

"  No ;  I  got  interested  and  did  n't  stop." 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      139 

"  Where  have  you  been  ?  " 

"Among  the  tenements." 

"How  are  the  people  getting  on  there?" 

"I  cannot  tell.  It  almost  chokes  me  to  think 
of  it." 

"  Now,  Phillip,  what  makes  you  take  it  so  seri- 
ously? How  can  you  help  all  that  suffering?  You 
are  not  to  blame  for  it?  " 

"  Maybe  I  am  for  a  part  of  it.  But  whether  I  am 
or  not,  there  the  suffering  is.  And  I  don't  know 
that  we  ought  to  ask  who  is  to  blame  in  such  cases. 
At  any  rate,  supposing  the  fathers  and  mothers  in 
the  tenements  are  themselves  to  blame  for  their 
own  wretchedness  this  fearful  day,  having  brought 
it  all  on  themselves  by  their  own  sinfulness,  does 
that  make  innocent  children  and  helpless  babes  any 
warmer  and  better  clothed  and  fed  ?  Sarah,  I  have 
seen  things  in  four  hours'  time  that  make  me  want 
to  join  the  bomb-throwers  of  Europe  almost." 

Mrs.  Strong  came  up  behind  Phillip's  chair  as  he 
sat  at  the  table  eating,  and  placed  her  hand  on  his 
brow.  She  grew  more  anxious  every  day  over  his 
growing  personal  feeling  for  others.  It  seemed  to 
her  it  was  becoming  a  passion  with  him,  wearing  him 
out,  and  she  feared  its  results  as  winter  deepened 
and  the  lock-out  in  the  mills  remained  unbroken. 

"You  cannot  do  more  than  one  man,  Phillip," 
she  said  with  a  sigh. 

"  No,  but  if  I  can  only  make  the  church  see  its 
duty  at  this  time  and  act  the  Christlike  way  a  great 
many  persons  will  be  saved.  Sarah  !  "  He  dropped 


140       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

his  knife  and  fork,  wheeled  around  abruptly  in  his 
chair,  and  faced  her  with  the  question,  "  Would 
you  give  up  this  home  and  be  content  to  live  in  a 
simpler  fashion  than  we  have  been  used  to  since  we 
came  here?" 

"  Yes,"  replied  his  wife,  quietly,  "  I  will  go  any- 
where and  suffer  anything  with  you,  Phillip.  What 
is  it  you  are  thinking  of  now  ?  " 

"  I  need  a  little  more  time.  There  is  a  crisis 
near  at  hand  in  my  thought  of  what  Christ  would 
require  of  me.  My  dear,  I  am  sure  we  shall  be 
led  by  the  spirit  of  Truth  to  do  what  is  necessary 
and  for  the  better  saving  of  men." 

He  kissed  his  wife  tenderly  and  went  upstairs  to 
his  work.  All  through  the  rest  of  the  afternoon 
and  in  the  evening,  as  he  shaped  his  church  and 
pulpit  work,  the  words  of  the  "  Brother  Man  "  rang 
in  his  ears,  and  the  situation  at  the  tenements  rose 
in  the  successive  pictures  of  a  panorama  before  his 
eyes.  As  the  storm  increased  in  fury  with  the 
coming  darkness,  Phillip  felt  that  it  was  typical  in  a 
certain  sense  of  his  own  condition.  He  abandoned 
the  work  he  had  been  doing  at  his  desk  and  kneel- 
ing down  at  his  couch  prayed.  Mrs.  Strong,  coming 
up  to  the  study  to  see  how  his  work  was  getting  on, 
found  him  kneeling  there  and  went  and  kneeled 
beside  him  while  together  they  sought  the  light 
through  the  storm. 

So  the  weeks  went  by  and  the  first  Sunday  of  the 
next  month  found  Phillip's  Christ  message  even 
more  direct  and  personal  than  any  he  had  brought 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      141 

to  his  people  before.  He  had  spent  much  of  the 
time  going  into  the  working-men's  homes.  The 
tenement  district  was  becoming  familiar  territory  to 
him  now.  He  had  settled  finally  what  his  own 
action  ought  to  be.  In  that  action  his  wife  fully 
concurred.  And  the  members  of  Calvary  Church 
coming  in  that  Sunday  morning  were  astonished  at 
the  message  of  their  pastor  as  he  spoke  to  them 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  modern  Christ. 

"  I  said  a  month  ago  that  the  age  in  which  we 
live  demands  a  simpler,  less  extravagant  style  of  liv- 
ing. I  did  not  mean  by  that  to  condemn  the 
beauties  of  art  or  the  marvels  of  science  or  the  pro- 
ducts of  civilization.  I  merely  emphasized  what  I 
believe  is  a  mighty  but  neglected  truth  in  our  modern 
civilization,  —  that  if  we  would  win  men  to  Christ  we 
must  adopt  more  of  his  spirit  of  simple  and  conse- 
crated self-denial.  I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  under- 
stood as  I  go  on  that  I  do  not  condemn  any  man 
because  he  is  rich  or  lives  in  a  luxurious  house, 
enjoying  every  comfort  of  modern  civilization  and 
every  delicacy  of  the  season.  What  I  do  wish  dis- 
tinctly understood  is  the  belief  which  has  been 
burned  deep  into  me  ever  since  coming  to  this  town, 
that  if  the  members  of  this  church  wish  to  honor  the 
Head  of  the  Church  and  bring  men  to  believe  him 
and  be  saved  in  this  life  and  the  next  they  must  be 
willing  to  do  far  more  than  they  have  yet  done  to 
make  use  of  the  physical  comforts  and  luxuries  of 
their  homes  for  the  blessing  and  Christianizing 
of  this  community.  In  this  particular  I  have  myself 


1 4.2       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

failed  to  set  you  an  example.  The  fact  that  I  have 
so  failed  is  my  only  reason  for  making  this  matter 
public  this  morning. 

"The  situation  in  Milton  to-day  is  exceedingly 
serious.  I  do  not  need  to  prove  it  to  you  by 
figures.  If  any  business  man  will  go  through  the 
tenements  he  will  acknowledge  my  statements.  If 
any  woman  now  in  this  house  will  contrast  those 
dens  with  her  own  home,  she  will,  if  Christ  is  a 
power  in  her  heart,  stand  in  horror  before  such  a 
travesty  of  the  ideal  happy  home  of  the  working- 
man.  The  destitution  of  the  neighborhood  is 
alarming.  The  number  of  men  out  of  work  is 
dangerous.  The  complete  removal  of  all  sympathy 
between  the  Church  up  here  on  this  street,  and  the 
tenement  district  is  sadder  than  death.  O  my 
beloved  !  "  —  Phillip  stretched  out  his  arms  and 
uttered  a  cry  that  rang  in  the  ears  of  those  who 
heard  it  and  remained  with  some  of  them  a  memory 
for  years,  —  "  these  things  ought  not  so  to  be  ! 
Where  is  the  Christ  spirit  with  us  !  Have  we  not  sat  in 
our  comfortable  houses  and  eaten  our  pleasant  food 
and  dressed  in  the  finest  clothing  and  gone  to 
amusements  and  entertainments  without  number, 
while  God's  poor  have  shivered  on  the  streets,  and 
his  sinful  ones  have  sneered  at  Christianity  as  they 
walked  by  our  church  doors? 

"  It  is  true  we  have  given  money  to  charitable 
causes.  It  is  true  the  town  council  has  organ- 
ized a  bureau  for  the  care  and  maintenance  of  those 
in  want.  It  is  true  members  of  Calvary  Church 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      143 

with  other  churches  at  this  time  have  done  some- 
thing to  relieve  the  immediate  distress  of  the  town. 
But  how  much  have  we  given  of  ourselves  to  those 
in  need  ?  Do  we  reflect  that  to  reach  souls  and 
win  them,  to  bring  back  humanity  to  God  and  the 
Christ,  the  Christian  must  do  something  different 
from  the  giving  of  money  now  and  then?  He 
must  give  a  part  of  himself.  That  was  my  reason 
for  urging  you  to  move  this  church  building  away 
from  this  street  into  the  tenement  district,  that  we 
might  give  ourselves  to  the  people  there.  The 
idea  is  the  same  in  what  I  now  propose.  But 
you  will  pardon  me  if  first  of  all  I  announce  my  own 
action,  which  I  believe  is  demanded  by  the  times 
and  would  be  approved  by  our  Lord." 

Phillip  stepped  up  near  the  front  of  the  platform 
and  spoke  with  an  earnestness  and  power  which 
thrilled  every  hearer.  A  part  of  the  great  conflict 
through  which  he  had  gone  that  past  month  shone 
out  in  his  pale  face  and  found  partial  utterance  in 
his  impassioned  speech,  especially  as  he  drew  near 
the  end.  The  very  abruptness  of  his  proposition 
smote  the  people  into  breathless  attention. 

"  The  parsonage  in  which  I  am  now  living  is  a 
large,  even  a  luxurious  dwelling.  It  has  nine  large 
rooms.  You  are  familiar  with  its  furnishing.  The 
salary  this  church  pays  me  is  two  thousand  dollars, 
a  sum  which  more  than  provides  for  my  necessities. 
What  I  have  decided  to  do  is  this  :  I  wish  this  church 
to  reduce  this  salary  one  half  and  apply  the  other 
thousand  dollars  to  the  fitting  up  of  the  parsonage, 


144      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

as  a  refuge  for  homeless  children,  or  for  some  such 
purpose  which  may  commend  itself  to  your  best 
judgment.  There  is  money  enough  in  this  church 
alone  to  maintain  such  an  institution  handsomely, 
and  not  a  single  member  of  Calvary  suffer  any  hard- 
ship whatever.  I  will  move  into  a  house  nearer  the 
lower  part  of  the  town,  where  I  can  more  easily  reach 
after  the  people  and  live  more  among  them.  That 
is  what  I  propose  for  myself.  It  is  not  because  I 
believe  the  rich  and  the  educated  do  not  need  the 
gospel  or  the  church.  The  rich  and  the  poor  both 
need  the  life  more  abundantly.  But  I  am  firmly 
convinced  that  as  matters  now  are,  the  church-mem- 
bership through  pulpit  and  pew  must  give  itself  more 
than  in  the  later  ages  of  the  world  it  has  done  for 
the  sake  of  winning  men.  The  form  of  our  own 
self-denial  must  take  a  definite,  physical,  genuinely 
sacrificing  shape.  The  Church  must  get  back  to  the 
apostolic  times  in  some  particulars  and  an  adapta- 
tion of  community  of  goods  and  a  sharing  of  certain 
aspects  of  civilization  must  mark  the  church-mem- 
bership of  the  coming  twentieth  century.  An 
object  lesson  in  self-denial  large  enough  for  men  to 
see,  a  self-denial  that  actually  gives  up  luxuries, 
money,  and  even  harmless  pleasures,  —  this  is  the 
only  kind  that  will  make  much  impression  on  the 
people.  I  believe  if  Christ  were  on  earth  he  would 
again  call  for  this  expression  of  loyalty  to  him.  He 
would  again  say,  '  So  likewise  whosoever  he  be  of 
you  that  forsaketh  not  all  that  he  hath,  he  cannot  be 
my  disciple  ? ' 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      145 

"  All  this  is  what  I  call  on  the  members  of  this 
church  to  do.  Do  I  say  that  you  ought  to  abandon 
your  own  houses  and  live  somewhere  else?  No.  I 
can  decide  only  for  myself  in  a  matter  of  that  kind. 
But  this  much  I  do  say.  Give  yourselves  in  some 
genuine  way  to  save  this  town  from  its  wretchedness. 
It  is  not  so  much  your  money  as  your  own  soul  that 
the  sickness  of  the  world  demands.  This  plan  has 
occurred  to  me.  Why  could  not  every  family  in  this 
church  become  a  savior  to  some  other  family  that 
is  actually  in  need  of  saving.  Let  the  church  family 
interest  itself  in  the  other,  know  the  extent  of  its 
wants  as  far  as  possible,  go  to  it  in  person,  let  the 
Christian  home  come  into  actual  touch  with  the 
unchristian,  in  short,  become  a  natural  savior  to 
one  family.  There  are  dozens  of  families  in  this 
church  that  could  do  that.  It  would  take  money. 
It  would  take  time.  It  would  mean  real  self-denial. 
It  would  call  for  all  your  Christian  grace  and  cour- 
age. But  what  does  all  this  church-membership  and 
church  life  mean  if  not  just  such  sacrifice?  We 
cannot  give  anything  to  this  age  of  more  value  than 
our  own  selves.  The  world  of  sin  and  want  and 
despair  and  disbelief  is  not  hungering  for  money  or 
mission-schools  or  charity  balls  or  state  institutions 
for  the  relief  of  distress,  but  for  live,  pulsing,  loving 
Christian  men  and  women,  who  reach  out  live,  warm 
hands,  who  are  willing  to  go  and  give  themselves, 
who  will  abandon,  if  necessary,  if  Christ  calls  for  it, 
the  luxuries  they  have  these  many  years  enjoyed  in 
order  that  the  bewildered,  disheartened,  discontented, 
10 


146       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

unhappy,  sinful  creatures  of  earth  may  actually  learn 
of  the  love  of  God  through  the  love  of  man.  And 
that  is  the  only  way  the  world  ever  has  learned  of 
the  love  of  God.  Humanity  brought  that  love  to 
the  heart  of  the  race,  and  it  will  continue  so  to  do 
until  this  earth's  tragedy  is  all  played  and  the  last 
light  put  out.  Members  of  Calvary  Church,  I  call 
on  you  in  Christ's  name  this  day  to  do  something 
for  your  Master  that  will  really  be  a  self-denial  for 
you.  Consider  the  age  in  which  you  live.  And 
give  yourselves  to  it  in  a  way  that  will  make  men 
believe  beyond  a  doubt  that  you  really  mean  what 
you  say  when  you  claim  to  be  a  disciple  of  that  One 
who,  although  rich,  yet  for  our  sakes  became  poor, 
giving  up  all  heaven's  glory  in  exchange  for  all  earth's 
misery,  the  end  of  which  was  a  cruel  and  bloody 
crucifixion.  Are  we  Christ's  disciples  unless  we  fol- 
low him  in  this  particular?  We  are  not  our  own. 
We  are  bought  with  a  price." 

When  that  Sunday  morning  service  closed,  Calvary 
Church  was  stirred  to  its  depths.  There  were  more 
excited  people  talking  together  all  over  the  church 
than  Phillip  had  ever  seen  before.  He  greeted 
several  strangers  as  usual  and  was  talking  with  one  of 
them,  when  one  of  the  trustees  came  up  and  said 
the  Board  would  like  to  meet  with  Phillip  if  con- 
venient for  him  as  soon  as  he  was  at  liberty. 

Phillip  accordingly  waited  in  one  of  the  Sunday- 
school  class-rooms  with  the  trustees,  who  had  met 
immediately  after  the  sermon,  and  decided  to  have 
an  instant  conference  with  the  pastor. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  door  of  the  class-room  was  closed  and 
Phillip  and  the  trustees  were  together.  There 
was  a  moment  of  embarrassing  silence  and  then  the 
spokesman  for  the  Board,  a  nervous  little  man, 
said  :  — 

"  Mr.  Strong,  we  hardly  know  just  what  to  say  to 
this  proposition  of  yours  this  morning  about  going 
out  of  the  parsonage  and  turning  it  into  an  orphan 
asylum.  But  it  is  certainly  a  very  remarkable  prop- 
osition and  we  felt  as  if  we  ought  to  meet  you  at 
once  and  talk  it  over." 

"  It 's  simply  impossible,"  spoke  up  one  of  the 
trustees.  "  In  the  first  place  it  is  impracticable  as 
a  business  proposition." 

"  Do  you  think  so?  "  asked  Phillip,  quietly. 

"  It  is  out  of  the  question  !  "  said  the  first  speaker, 
excitedly.  "The  church  will  never  listen  to  it  in 
the  world.  For  my  part,  if  Brother  Strong  wishes 
to  —  " 

At  that  moment  the  sexton  knocked  at  the  door 
and  said  a  man  was  outside  very  anxious  to  see  the 
minister  and  have  him  come  down  to  his  house. 
There  had  been  an  accident,  or  a  fight,  or  some- 
thing. Some  one  was  dying  and  wanted  Mr.  Strong 
at  once.  So  Phillip  hastily  excused  himself  and 
went  out,  leaving  the  trustees  together. 


148       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

The  door  was  hardly  shut  again  when  the  speaker 
who  had  been  interrupted  jumped  to  his  feet  and 
exclaimed  :  — 

"  As  I  was  saying,  for  my  part,  if  Brother  Strong 
wishes  to  indulge  in  this  eccentric  action  he  will 
not  have  the  sanction  of  my  vote  in  the  matter  ! 
It  certainly  is  an  entirely  unheard-of  and  uncalled- 
for  proposition." 

"  Mr.  Strong  has,  no  doubt,  a  generous  motive 
in  this  proposed  action,"  said  the  third  member  of 
the  Board ;  "  but  the  church  will  most  certainly 
oppose  any  such  step  as  the  giving  up  of  the  par- 
sonage. He  exaggerates  the  need  of  such  a  sacri- 
fice. I  think  we  ought  to  reason  him  out  of  the 
idea." 

"We  called  Mr.  Strong  to  the  pastorate  of 
Calvary  Church,"  said  another;  "and  it  seems  to 
me  he  came  under  the  conditions  granted  in  our 
call.  For  the  church  to  allow  such  an  absurd 
thing  as  the  giving  up  of  the  parsonage  to  this 
proposed  outside  work  would  be  a  very  unwise 
move." 

"Yes,  and  more  than  that,"  said  the  first  speaker, 
"  I  want  to  say  very  frankly  that  I  am  growing  tired 
of  the  way  things  have  gone  since  Mr.  Strong  came 
to  us.  What  business  has  Calvary  Church  with  all 
these  outside  matters,  these  labor  troubles  and  un- 
employed men  and  all  the  other  matters  that  have 
been  made  the  subject  of  preaching  lately?  I  want 
a  minister  who  looks  after  his  own  parish.  Mr. 
Strong  does  not  call  on  his  own  people ;  he  has 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      149 

not  been  inside  my  house  but  once  since  he  came 
to  Milton.  Brethren,  there  is  a  growing  feeling  of 
discontent  over  this  matter." 

There  was  a  short  pause  and  then  one  of  the 
members  said  :  — 

"  Surely  if  Mr.  Strong  feels  dissatisfied  with  his 
surroundings  in  the  parsonage  or  feels  as  if  his  work 
lay  in  another  direction,  he  is  at  liberty  to  choose 
another  parish.  But  he  is  the  finest  pulpit-minister 
we  ever  had,  and  no  one  doubts  his  entire  sincerity. 
He  is  a  remarkable  man  in  many  respects." 

"  Yes,  but  sincerity  may  be  a  very  awkward  thing 
if  carried  too  far.  And  in  this  matter  of  the  par- 
sonage I  don't  see  how  the  trustees  can  allow  it. 
Why,  what  would  the  other  churches  think  of  it? 
Calvary  Church  cannot  allow  anything  of  the  kind, 
for  the  sake  of  its  reputation.  But  I  would  like  to 
hear  Mr.  Winter's  opinion;  he  has  not  spoken 
yet." 

The  rest  turned  to  the  mill-owner,  who  as  chair- 
man of  the  Board  usually  had  much  to  say,  and  was 
regarded  as  a  shrewd  and  careful  business  adviser. 
In  the  excitement  of  the  occasion  and  discussion 
the  usual  formalities  of  a  regular  Board-meeting  had 
been  ignored. 

Mr.  Winter  was  evidently  embarrassed.  He  had 
listened  to  the  discussion  of  the  minister  with  his 
head  bent  down  and  his  thoughts  in  a  whirl  of 
emotion  both  for  and  against  the  pastor.  His 
naturally  inclined  business  habits  contended  against 
the  proposition  to  give  up  the  parsonage ;  his 


150      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

feelings  of  gratitude  to  the  minister  for  his  personal 
help  the  night  of  the  attack  by  the  mob  rose  up  to 
defend  him.  There  was  with  it  all  an  under-current 
of  self-administered  rebuke  that  the  pastor  had  set 
the  whole  church  an  example  of  unselfishness.  He 
wondered  how  many  of  the  members  would  volun- 
tarily give  up  half  their  incomes  for  the  good  of 
humanity.  He  wondered  in  a  confused  way  how 
much  he  would  give  up  himself.  Phillip's  sermon 
had  made  a  real  impression  on  him. 

"  There  is  one  point  we  have  not  discussed  yet," 
he  said  at  last.  "  And  that  is  Mr.  Strong's  offer  of 
half  his  salary  to  carry  on  the  work  of  a  children's 
refuge  or  something  of  that  kind." 

"How  can  we  accept  such  an  offer?  Calvary 
Church  has  always  believed  in  paying  its  minister 
a  good  salary,  and  paying  it  promptly;  and  we 
want  our  minister  to  live  decently  and  be  able  to 
appear  as  he  should  among  the  best  people,"  re- 
plied the  nervous  little  man  who  had  been  first  to 
speak. 

"  Still,  we  cannot  deny  that  it  is  a  very  generous 
thing  for  Mr.  Strong  to  do.  He  certainly  is  entitled 
to  credit  for  his  unselfish  proposal;  no  one  can 
charge  him  with  being  worldly-minded,"  said  Mr. 
Winter,  feeling  a  new  interest  in  the  subject  as  he 
found  himself  defending  the  minister. 

"  Are  you  in  favor  of  allowing  him  to  do  what  he 
proposes  in  the  matter  of  the  parsonage?"  asked 
another. 

"  I  don't  see    that  we   can   hinder   Mr.  Strong 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       151 

from  living  anywhere  he  pleases.  The  church  can- 
not compel  him  to  live  in  the  parsonage." 

"  No,  but  it  can  choose  not  to  have  such  a  min- 
ister !"  exclaimed  the  first  speaker  again,  excitedly; 
"  and  I  for  one  am  most  decidedly  opposed  to  the 
whole  thing.  I  do  not  see  how  the  church  can 
allow  it  and  maintain  its  self-respect." 

"  Do  you  think  the  church  is  ready  to  tell  Mr. 
Strong  that  his  services  are  not  wanted  any  longer?  " 
asked  Mr.  Winter  coldly. 

"  I  am,  for  one  of  the  members,  and  I  know 
others  who  feel  as  I  do  if  matters  go  on  this  way 
much  longer.  I  tell  you,  Brother  Winter,  Calvary 
Church  is  very  near  a  crisis.  Look  at  the  Goldens 
and  the  Malverns  and  the  Albergs.  They  are  all 
leaving  us ;  and  the  plain  reason  is  the  nature  of 
the  preaching.  Why,  you  know  yourself,  Brother 
Winter,  never  has  the  pulpit  of  Calvary  Church 
heard  such  preaching  on  people's  private  affairs." 

Mr.  Winter  colored  «p  and  replied  angrily,  "  What 
has  that  to  do  with  the  present  matter?  If  the 
minister  wants  to  live  in  a  simpler  style  I  don't  see 
what  business  we  have  to  try  to  stop  it.  As  to  the 
disposition  of  the  parsonage,  that  is  a  matter  01 
business  which  rests  with  the  church  to  arrange." 

The  nervous,  irritable  little  man  who  had  spoken 
oftenest  rose  to  his  feet  and  exclaimed,  "You  can 
count  me  out  of  all  this,  then !  I  wash  my  hands 
of  the  whole  affair  !  "  and  he  went  out  of  the  room, 
leaving  the  rest  of  the  Board  somewhat  surprised 
and  confused  by  his  sudden  departure. 


152       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

They  remained  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  longer, 
discussing  the  matter,  and  finally,  at  Mr.  Winter's 
suggestion,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  confer 
with  the  minister  the  next  evening  and  see  if  he 
could  not  be  persuaded  to  modify  or  change  his 
proposition  made  in  the  morning  sermon.  The 
rest  of  the  trustees  insisted  that  Mr.  Winter  himself 
should  act  as  chairman  of  the  committee,  and  after 
some  remonstrance  he  with  great  reluctance  agreed 
to  do  so. 

So  Phillip  next  evening,  as  he  sat  in  his  study 
mapping  out  the  week's  work  and  wondering  a  little 
what  the  church  would  do  in  the  face  of  his  pro- 
posal, received  the  committee,  welcoming  them  in 
his  bright,  hearty  manner.  He  had  been  notified 
on  Sunday  evening  of  the  approaching  conference. 
The  committee  consisted  of  Mr.  Winter  and  two 
other  members  of  the  Board. 

Mr.  Winter  opened  the  conversation  with  con- 
siderable embarrassment  and  an  evident  repugnance 
to  his  share  in  the  matter. 

"  Mr.  Strong,  we  have  come,  as  you  are  aware,  to 
talk  over  your  proposition  of  yesterday  morning 
concerning  the  parsonage.  It  was  a  great  surprise 
to  us  all." 

Phillip  smiled  a  little.  "  Mrs.  Strong  says  I  act 
too  much  on  impulse,  and  do  not  prepare  people 
enough  for  my  statements.  But  one  of  the  greatest 
men  I  ever  knew  used  to  say  that  impulse  was  a 
good  thing  to  obey  instantly  if  there  was  no  doubt 
of  its  being  a  right  one." 


THE  CRUCIFIXION   OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      153 

"And  do  you  consider  this  proposed  move  of 
yours  a  right  one,  Mr.  Strong?  "  asked  Mr.  Winter. 

"  I  do,"  replied  Phillip,  with  quiet  emphasis.  "  I 
do  not  regret  making  it,  and  I  believe  it  is  my  duty 
to  abide  by  my  original  decision." 

"  Do  you  mean  that  you  intend  actually  to  move 
out  of  this  parsonage  ? "  asked  one  of  the  other 
members  of  the  committee. 

"Yes."  Phillip  said  it  so  quietly  and  yet  so 
decidedly  that  the  committee  was  silent  a  moment. 
Then  Mr.  Winter  said  :  — 

"  Mr.  Strong,  this  matter  is  likely  to  cause  trouble 
in  the  church,  and  we  might  as  well  understand 
it  frankly.  The  trustees  believe  that  as  the  par- 
sonage belongs  to  the  church  property,  and  was 
built  for  the  minister,  he  ought  to  live  in  it.  The 
church  will  not  understand  your  desire  to  move 
out." 

"Do  you  understand  it,  Mr.  Winter?  "  Phillip 
put  the  question  point-blank. 

"  No,  I  don't  know  that  I  do,  wholly."  Mr. 
Winter  colored  and  replied  in  a  hesitating  manner. 

"  I  gave  my  reasons  yesterday  morning.  I  do 
not  know  that  I  can  make  them  plainer.  The 
truth  is  I  cannot  go  on  preaching  to  my  people 
about  living  on  a  simpler  basis  while  I  continue 
to  live  in  surroundings  that  on  the  face  of  them  con- 
tradict my  own  convictions.  In  other  words,  I  am 
living  beyond  my  necessities  here.  I  have  lived  all 
my  life  surrounded  by  the  luxuries  of  civilization. 
If  now  I  desire  to  give  the  benefit  of  them  to  those 


154      THE   CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

who  have  never  enjoyed  them,  or  to  know  from 
closer  contact  something  of  the  bitter  struggle  of 
the  poor,  why  should  I  be  hindered  from  putting 
that  desire  into  practical  form?" 

"The  question  is,  Mr.  Strong,"  said  one  of  the 
other  trustees,  "  whether  this  is  the  best  way  to  get 
at  it.  We  do  not  question  your  sincerity  nor  doubt 
your  honesty;  but  will  your  leaving  the  parsonage 
and  living  in  a  less  expensive  house  on  half  your 
present  salary  help  your  church  work  or  reach  more 
people  and  save  more  souls?" 

"  I  am  glad  you  put  it  that  way,"  exclaimed  Phil- 
lip, eagerly  turning  to  the  speaker.  "  That  is  just  it. 
Will  my  proposed  move  result  in  bringing  the  church 
and  the  minister  into  closer  and  more  vital  relations 
with  the  people  most  in  need  of  spiritual  and  physi- 
cal uplifting?  Out  of  the  depths  of  my  nature  I 
believe  it  will.  The  chasm  between  the  Church  and 
the  people  in  these  days  must  be  bridged  by  the 
spirit  of  sacrifice  in  material  things.  It  is  in  vain 
for  us  to  preach  spiritual  truths  unless  we  live  physi- 
cal truths.  What  the  world  is  looking  for  to-day  is 
object  lessons  in  self-denial  on  the  part  of  Christian 
people." 

For  a  moment  no  one  spoke.  Then  Mr.  Winter 
said  :  — 

"  About  your  proposal  that  this  house  be  turned 
into  a  refuge  or  home  for  homeless  children,  Mr. 
Strong,  do  you  consider  that  idea  practicable? 
Is  it  business?  Is  it  possible?" 

"  I  believe  it  is,  very  decidedly.     The  number  of 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      155 

homeless  and  vagrant  children  at  present  in  Milton 
would  astonish  you.  This  house  could  be  put  into 
beautiful  shape  as  a  detention  house  until  homes 
could  be  found  for  the  children  in  Christian 
families." 

"  It  would  take  a  great  deal  of  money  to  manage 
it." 

"  Yes,"  replied  Phillip,  with  a  sadness  which  had 
its  cause  deep  within  him,  "it  would  cost  some- 
thing. But  can  the  world  be  saved  cheaply?  Does 
not  every  soul  saved  cost  an  immense  sum,  if  not  of 
money  at  least  of  an  equivalent  ?  Is  it  possible  for  us 
to  get  at  the  heart  of  the  great  social  problem  with- 
out feeling  the  need  of  using  all  our  powers  to  solve 
it  rightly?" 

Mr.  Winter  shook  his  head.  He  did  not  under- 
stand the  minister.  His  action  and  his  words  were 
both  foreign  to  the  mill-owner's  regular  business 
habits  of  thought  and  performance. 

"What  will  you  do,  Mr.  Strong,  if  the  church 
refuses  to  listen  to  this  proposed  plan  of  yours?" 

"I  suppose,"  answered  Phillip,  after  a  little  pause, 
"  the  church  will  not  object  to  my  living  in  another 
house  at  my  own  charges  ?  " 

"They  have  no  right  to  compel  you  to  live 
here."  Mr.  Winter  turned  to  the  other  members 
of  the  committee.  "  I  said  so  at  our  previous 
meeting.  Gentlemen,  am  I  not  right  in  that  ?  " 

"  It  is  not  a  question  of  our  compelling  Mr. 
Strong  to  live  here,"  said  one  of  the  others.  "  It  is 
a  question  of  the  church's  expecting  him  to  do  so. 


156      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

It  is  the  parsonage  and  the  church  home  for  the 
minister.  In  my  opinion  there  will  be  trouble  if  Mr. 
Strong  moves  out.  People  will  not  understand  it." 

"  That  is  my  feeling,  too,  Mr.  Strong,"  said  Mr. 
Winter.  "  It  would  be  better  for  you  to  modify  or 
change,  or  better  still,  to  abandon  this  plan.  It  will 
not  be  understood  and  will  cause  trouble." 

"  Suppose  the  church  should  rent  the  parsonage 
to  some  party,  then,"  suggested  Phillip ;  "  it  would 
then  be  getting  a  revenue  from  the  property.  That, 
with  the  thousand  dollars  on  my  salary,  could  be 
wisely  and  generously  used  to  relieve  much  suffering 
in  Milton  this  winter.  The  church  could  easily 
rent  the  house." 

That  was  true,  as  the  parsonage  stood  on  one  of 
the  most  desirable  parts  of  B.  Street  and  would 
command  good  rental. 

"Then  you  persist  in  this  plan  of  yours,  do 
you,  Mr.  Strong?"  asked  the  third  member  of  the 
committee,  who  had  for  the  most  part  been  silent. 

"  Yes,  I  consider  that  under  the  circumstances,  lo- 
cal and  universal,  it  is  my  duty.  Where  I  propose  to 
go  there  is  a  house  which  I  can  get  for  eight  dollars 
a  month.  It  is  near  the  tenement  district,  and  not 
so  far  from  the  church  and  this  neighborhood  that  I 
need  be  isolated  too  much  from  my  church  family." 

Mr.  Winter  looked  serious  and  perplexed.  The 
other  trustees  looked  dissatisfied.  It  was  evident 
they  regarded  the  whole  thing  with  disfavor. 

Mr.  Winter  rose  abruptly.  He  could  not  avoid  a 
feeling  of  anger,  in  spite  of  his  obligation  to  the 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       157 

minister.  He  also  had  a  vivid  recollection  of  his 
former  interview  with  the  pastor  in  that  study.  And 
yet  the  mill-owner  struggled  with  vague  resistance 
against  a  feeling  that  Phillip  was  proposing  to  do  a 
thing  that  could  result  for  himself  in  only  one  way, 
—  in  suffering.  With  all  the  rest  went  a  suppressed 
but  conscious  emotion  of  wonder  that  a  man  would 
of  his  own  free  will  give  up  a  luxurious  home  for 
the  sake  of  anybody. 

"The  matter  of  reduction  of  salary,  Mr.  Strong, 
will  have  to  come  before  the  church.  The  trustees 
cannot  vote  to  accept  your  proposal.  I  am  very 
much  mistaken  if  the  members  of  Calvary  Church 
will  not  oppose  the  reduction.  You  can  see  how  it 
would  place  us  in  an  unfavorable  light." 

"  Not  necessarily,  Mr.  Winter,"  said  Phillip,  eagerly. 
"  If  the  church  will  simply  regard  it  as  my  own  great 
desire  and  as  one  of  the  ways  by  which  we  may 
help  forward  our  work  in  Milton,  I  am  very  sure  we 
need  have  no  fear  of  being  put  in  a  false  light. 
The  church  does  not  propose  this  reduction.  The 
proposal  comes  from  me,  and  in  a  time  of  peculiar 
emergency  both  financial  and  social.  It  is  a  thing 
which  has  been  done  several  times  before  by  other 
ministers." 

"  That  may  be.  Still,  I  am  positive  that  Calvary 
Church  will  regard  it  as  unnecessary  and  will  oppose 
it." 

"  It  will  not  make  any  difference,  practically," 
replied  Phillip,  with  a  smile.  "  I  can  easily  dispose 
of  a  thousand  dollars  where  it  is  needed  by  others 


158      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

more  than  by  me.  But  I  would  prefer  that  the 
church  would  actually  pay  out  the  money  to  them, 
rather  than  myself." 

Mr.  Winter  and  the  other  trustees  looked  at  Phil- 
lip in  wonder ;  and  with  a  few  words  of  farewell 
they  left  the  parsonage. 

The  following  week  Calvary  Church  held  a  meet- 
ing. It  was  one  of  the  stormiest  meetings  ever 
held  by  the  members.  In  that  meeting  Mr.  Winter 
again,  to  the  surprise  of  nearly  all,  advised  caution, 
and  defended  the  minister's  action  up  to  a  certain 
point.  The  result  was  a  condition  of  waiting  and 
expectancy,  rather  than  downright  condemnation  of 
the  proposed  action  on  Phillip's  part.  It  would  be 
presenting  the  church  in  a  false  light  to  picture  it  as 
entirely  opposed,  up  to  this  date,  to  Phillip's  preach- 
ing and  ideas  of  Christian  living.  He  had  built  up 
a  strong  buttress  of  admiring  and  believing  members 
in  the  church.  This  stood,  with  Mr.  Winter's  influ- 
ence, as  a  breakwater  against  the  tidal  wave  of 
opposition  beginning  to  pour  in  upon  him.  There 
was  an  element  in  Calvary  Church  conservative  to  a 
degree,  and  yet  strong  in  its  growing  belief  that 
Christian  action  and  Church  work  in  the  world  had 
reached  a  certain  crisis,  which  would  result  either  in 
the  death  or  the  life  of  the  Church  in  America. 
Phillip's  preaching  had  strengthened  that  feeling. 
His  last  move  had  startled  the  thoughtful  element, 
and  it  wished  to  wait  for  developments.  The  pro- 
posal of  some  that  the  minister  be  requested  to 
resign  was  finally  overruled,  and  it  was  decided  not 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       [59 

to  oppose  his  desertion  of  the  parsonage,  while  the 
matter  of  reduction  of  salary  was  voted  upon  in  the 
negative. 

But  feeling  was  roused  to  a  high  pitch.  Many  of 
the  members  declared  their  intention  of  refusing  to 
attend  services.  Some  declared  they  would  not  pay 
their  pledges  any  longer.  A  small  majority,  how- 
ever, ruled  in  favor  of  Phillip,  and  the  action  of 
the  meeting  was  formally  sent  him  by  the  clerk. 

Meanwhile  Phillip  moved  out  of  the  parsonage 
into  his  new  quarters.  The  daily  paper,  which  had 
given  a  sensational  account  of  his  sermon,  laying 
most  stress  upon  his  voluntary  proposition  referring 
to  his  salary,  now  came  out  with  a  column  and  a 
half  devoted  to  Phillip's  carrying  out  of  his  deter- 
mination to  abandon  the  parsonage  and  get  nearer 
the  people  in  the  tenements.  The  article  was  widely 
copied  and  variously  commented  upon.  In  Milton, 
Phillip's  action  was  condemned  by  many,  defended 
by  some.  Very  few  seemed  to  understand  his  exact 
motive.  The  majority  took  it  as  an  eccentric  move, 
and  expressed  regret  in  one  form  and  another  that 
a  man  of  such  marked  intellectual  power  as  Mr. 
Strong  seemed  to  possess  lacked  balance  and  good 
judgment.  Some  called  him  a  crank.  The  people 
in  the  tenement  district  were  too  much  absorbed  in 
their  sufferings  and  selfishness  to  make  any  demon- 
stration. It  remained  to  be  seen  whether  they 
would  be  any  better  touched  by  Phillip  in  his  new 
home. 

So  matters  stood  when  the  first  Sunday  of  a  new 


160      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

month  came,  and  Phillip  again  stood  before  his 
church  with  his  Christ  message.  It  had  been  a 
wearing  month  to  him.  Gradually  there  had  been 
growing  upon  him  a  sense  of  almost  isolation  in 
his  pulpit  work.  He  wondered  if  he  had  inter- 
preted the  Christ  aright.  He  studied  with  re- 
newed earnestness  the  springs  of  action  that  moved 
the  historical  Jesus,  and  again  and  again  put  that 
resplendently  calm,  majestic,  .  suffering  personality 
into  his  own  pulpit  in  Milton,  and  then  stood  off,  as 
it  were,  to  watch  what  he  would,  in  all  human  prob- 
ability, say.  He  reviewed  all  his  own  sayings  on 
those  first  Sundays  and  tried  to  tax  himself  with 
utmost  severity  for  any  denial  of  his  Master  or  any 
false  presentation  of  his  spirit;  and  as  he  went 
over  the  ground  he  was  almost  overwhelmed  to 
think  how  little  had  been  really  accomplished.  This 
time  he  came  before  the  church  with  the  experience 
of  nearly  three  weeks'  hand-to-hand  work  among 
the  people  for  whose  sake  he  had  moved  out  of 
the  parsonage.  As  usual  an  immense  congregation 
thronged  the  church. 

"  The  question  '  What  is  church  work  ? '  has  come 
to  me  lately  in  different  forms,"  began  Phillip.  "I 
am  aware  that  my  attitude  on  this  question  is  not 
shared  by  many  of  the  members  of  this  church  and 
other  churches.  Nevertheless,  I  stand  here  to-day, 
as  I  have  stood  on  these  Sundays,  to  declare  to 
you  what  in  deepest  humility  would  seem  to  me  to 
be  the  attitude  of  Christ  in  the  matter  before  us. 

"  What  is    a  church  ?     It  is  a  body  of  disciples 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      161 

professing  to  acknowledge  Christ  as  Master.  What 
does  he  want  such  a  body  to  be?  Like  himself  in 
spirit,  in  daily  life.  What  does  he  want  such  a  body 
to  do  ?  Whatever  will  most  effectively  make  God's 
kingdom  come  on  earth,  and  his  will  be  done  as  in 
heaven.  What  is  the  most  necessary  work  of  this 
church  in  Milton?  It  is  to  go  out  and  seek  and 
save  the  lost.  It  is  to  take  up  its  cross  and  follow 
the  Master.  And  as  I  see  him  to-day  he  beckons 
this  church  to  follow  him  into  the  tenements  and 
slums  of  this  town  and  be  Christs  to  those  who  do 
not  know  him.  As  I  see  him  he  stands  beckoning 
with  pierced  palms  in  the  direction  of  suffering 
and  disease  and  ignorance  and  vice  and  paganism, 
saying,  '  Here  is  where  the  work  of  Calvary  Church 
lies.'  I  do  not  believe  the  real  work  of  this  church 
consists  in  having  so  many  meetings  and  socials  and 
pleasant  gatherings  and  delightful  occasions  among 
its  own  members  :  but  the  real  work  of  this  church 
consists  in  getting  out  of  its  own  little  circle  in 
which  it  has  been  so  many  years  moving,  and  going 
in  any  way  most  effective  to  the  need  of  the  world's 
wounded,  to  bind  up  the  hurt  and  be  a  savior  to 
the  lost.  If  we  do  not  understand  this  to  be  the 
true  meaning  of  our  church  work  then  I  believe  we 
miss  its  whole  meaning.  Church  work  in  Milton 
to-day  does  not  consist  in  doing  simply  what  your 
fathers  did  before  you.  It  means  helping  to  make 
a  cleaner  town,  the  purification  of  our  municipal 
life,  the  actual  planning  and  accomplishment  of 
means  to  relieve  physical  distress,  a  thorough 


1 62      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP   PHILLIP  STRONG. 

understanding  of  the  problem  of  labor  and  capital, 
in  brief,  church  work  to-day  in  this  town  is  what- 
ever is  most  needed  to  be  done  to  prove  to  this 
town  that  we  are  what  we  profess  ourselves  to  be, 
disciples  of  Jesus  Christ.  That  is  the  reason  I  give 
more  time  to  the  tenement  district  problem  than 
to  calling  on  families  that  are  well,  and  in  posses- 
sion of  great  comforts  and  privileges.  That  is  the 
reason  I  call  on  this  church  to  do  Christ's  work  in 
his  name  and  give  itself  to  save  that  unhappy  part 
of  this  town." 

This  is  but  the  briefest  of  the  sketches  of  Phillip's 
sermon.  It  was  a  part  of  himself,  his  experience, 
his  heart  belief.  He  poured  it  out  on  the  vast 
audience  with  little  saving  of  his  vitality.  And 
that  Sunday  he  went  home  at  night  exhausted,  with 
a  feeling  of  weariness  partly  due  to  his  work  during 
the  week  among  the  people.  The  calls  upon  his 
time  and  strength  had  been  incessant,  and  he  did 
not  know  when  or  where  to  stop. 

It  was  three  weeks  after  this  sermon  on  church 
work  that  Phillip  was  again  surprised  by  his  strange 
visitor  of  a  month  before.  He  had  been  out  making 
some  visits  in  company  with  his  wife. .  When  they 
came  back  to  the  house,  there  sat  the  Brother  Man 
on  the  door-step. 

At  the  sight  of  him  Phillip  felt  that  same  thrill  of 
expectancy  which  had  passed  over  him  at  his  former 
appearance. 

The  old  man  stood  up  and  took  off  his  hat.  He 
looked  very  tired  and  sorrowful.  But  there  breathed 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      163 

from  his  entire  bearing  the  element  of  a  perfect 
peace. 

"Brother  Man,"  said  Phillip,  cheerily,  "come  in 
and  rest  yourself." 

"  Can  you  keep  me  over  night  ?  " 

The  question  was  put  wistfully.  Phillip  was  struck 
by  the  difference  between  this  almost  shrinking 
request  and  the  self- invitation  of  a  month  before. 

"  Yes,  indeed  !  We  have  one  spare  room  for  you. 
You  are  welcome  !  Come  in." 

So  they  went  in,  and  after  tea  Phillip  and  the 
Brother  Man  sat  down  together  while  Mrs.  Strong 
was  busy  in  the  kitchen.  A  part  of  this  conversa- 
tion was  afterwards  related  by  the  minister  to  his 
wife ;  a  part  of  it  he  afterwards  said  was  unreport- 
able,  —  the  manner  of  tone,  the  inflection,  the  gest- 
ure of  his  remarkable  guest  no  man  could  reproduce. 

"  You  have  moved  since  I  saw  you  last,"  said  the 
visitor. 

"Yes,"  replied  Phillip.  "You  did  not  expect 
me  to  act  on  your  advice  so  soon?  " 

"My  advice?"  The  question  came  in  a  hesitat- 
ing tone.  "  Did  I  advise  you  to  move  ?  Ah,  yes, 
I  remember  !•"  A  light  like  supremest  reason 
flashed  over  the  man's  face  and  then  died  out. 
"  Yes,  yes,  you  are  beginning  to  live  on  your  simpler 
basis.  You  are  doing  as  you  preach.  That  must 
feel  good." 

"  Yes,"  smiled  Phillip,  "  it  does  feel  good.  Do 
you  think,  Brother  Man,  that  this  will  help  to  solve 
the  problem?" 


1 64       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP   STRONG. 

"What  problem?" 

"  Why,  the  problem  of  the  church  and  the  people, 
winning  them,  —  saving  them." 

"  Are  your  church-members  moving  out  of  their 
elegant  houses  and  coming  down  here  to  live  ? " 
The  old  man  asked  the  question  in  utmost  sim- 
plicity. 

"  No ;  I  did  not  ask  them  to  do  so." 

"  You  ought  to." 

"  What !  Brother  Man,  do  you  believe  my  people 
ought  literally  to  leave  their  possessions  and  live 
among  the  people?  " 

Phillip  could  not  help  asking  the  question,  and  all 
the  time  he  was  conscious  of  an  absurdity  mingled 
with  a  strange,  unaccountable  respect  for  his  visitor, 
and  his  opinion. 

"  Yes,"  came  the  reply  with  the  calmness  of 
light.  "  Christ  would  demand  it  if  he  were  pastor  of 
Calvary  Church  in  this  age.  The  church-members, 
the  Christians  in  this  century  must  renounce  all 
that  they  have,  or  they  cannot  be  his  disciples." 

Phillip  sat  profoundly  silent.  The  words  spoken 
so  quietly  by  this  creature  tossed  upon  his  own  soul 
like  a  vessel  in  a  tempest.  He  dared  not  say  any- 
thing for  a  moment.  The  Brother  Man  looked  over 
and  said  at  last :  "  What  have  you  been  preaching 
about  since  you  came  here?" 

"  A  great  many  things." 

"  What  are  some  of  the  things  you  have  preached 
about  on  the  first  Sundays?" 

"Well,"  Phillip  clasped  his  hands  over  his  knees; 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       165 

"  I  have  preached  about  the  right  and  wrong  uses 
of  property,  the  evil  of  the  saloon,  the  Sunday  as  a 
day  of  rest  and  worship,  the  necessity  of  moving 
our  church-building  down  into  this  neighborhood, 
the  need  of  living  on  a  simpler  basis,  and  lastly,  the 
true  work  of  a  church  in  these  days." 

"  Has  your  church  done  what  you  have  wished  ?  " 

"  No,"  replied  Phillip,  with  a  sigh. 

"Will  it  do  what  you  preach  ought  to  be  done?" 

"  I  do  not  know." 

"  Why  don't  you  resign? " 

The  question  came  with  perfect  simplicity,  but  it 
smote  Phillip  almost  like  a  blow.  It  was  spoken 
with  calmness  that  hardly  rose  above  a  whisper,  but 
it  seemed  to  Phillip  almost  like  a  shout.  The 
thought  of  giving  up  his  work  simply  because  his 
church  had  not  yet  done  all  he  wished,  or  because 
some  of  his  people  did  not  like  him,  was  the  last 
thing  a  man  of  his  nature  would  do.  He  looked 
again  at  the  Brother  Man  and  said  :  — 

"Would  you  resign  if  you  were  in  my  place?  " 

"  No."  It  was  so  quietly  spoken  that  Phillip 
almost  doubted  if  his  visitor  had  replied.  Then  he 
said  :  "  What  has  been  done  with  the  parsonage  ?  " 

"  It  is  empty.  The  church  is  waiting  to  rent  it 
to  some  one  who  expects  to  move  to  Milton  soon." 

"  Are  you  sorry  you  came  here?" 

"  No,  I  am  happy  in  my  work." 

" Do  you  have  enough  to  eat  and  wear?" 

"  Yes,  indeed,  Brother  Man.  The  thousand  dol- 
lars which  the  church  refused  to  take  off  my  salary 


166      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

goes  to  help  where  most  needed ;  the  rest  is  more 
than  enough  for  us." 

"  Does  your  wife  think  so?  "  The  question  from 
any  one  else  had  been  impertinent.  From  the 
Brother  Man  it  was  not. 

"  Let  us  call  her  in  and  ask  her,"  replied  Phillip, 
with  a  smile. 

"  Sarah,  the  Brother  Man  wants  to  know  if  you 
have  enough  to  live  on." 

Sarah  came  in  and  sat  down  by  Phillip.  It  was 
dusk.  The  year  was  turning  into  the  softer  months 
of  spring,  and  all  the  out-door  world  had  been  a 
benediction  that  evening  if  the  sorrow  and  poverty 
and  sin  of  the  tenement  district  so  near  had  not 
pervaded  the  very  walls  and  atmosphere  of  the 
entire  place.  The  minister's  wife  answered  bravely, 
"  Yes,  we  have  food  and  clothing  and  life's  neces- 
saries. But  oh,  Phillip,  this  life  is  wearing  you  out. 
Yes,  Brother  Man,"  she  continued,  while  a  tear 
rolled  over  her  cheek,  "  the  minister  is  giving  his  life 
blood  to  these  people,  and  they  do  not  care.  It  is  a 
vain  sacrifice."  She  had  spoken  as  frankly  as  if  the 
old  man  had  been  her  father.  There  was  a  some- 
thing in  him  which  called  out  such  confidence. 

Phillip  soothed  his  wife,  clasping  her  to  him  ten- 
derly. "  There,  Sarah,  you  are  nervous  and  tired. 
I  am  a  little  discouraged,  but  strong  and  hearty  for 
the  work.  Brother  Man,  you  must  not  think  we 
regret  your  advice.  We  have  been  blessed  by 
following  it." 

And   then  their  remarkable  guest  stretched  out 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.       167 

his  arms  through  the  gathering  gloom  in  the  room 
and  seemed  to  bless  them.  Later  in  the  evening 
he  again  called  for  a  Bible,  and  offered  a  prayer  of 
wondrous  sweetness.  Phillip  showed  him  to  his 
plainly  furnished  room.  The  old  man  looked  around 
and  smiled. 

"This  is  like  my  old  home,"  he  said,  —  "a 
palace,  while  the  poor  die  of  hunger." 

Phillip  started  at  the  odd  remark,  then  recol- 
lected that  the  old  man  had  once  been  wealthy, 
and  sometimes  in  his  half-dazed  condition  Phillip 
thought  probable  he  confounded  the  humblest  sur- 
roundings with  his  once  luxurious  home.  He  lin- 
gered a  moment  and  the  Brother  Man  said,  "  If 
they  do  not  renounce  all  they  have  they  cannot  be 
my  disciples." 

"  Good-night,  Brother  Man,"  cried  Phillip  as  he 
went  out. 

"Good-night,  Christ's  man,"  replied  his  guest. 
And  Phillip  went  to  his  rest  that  night,  great  ques- 
tions throbbing  in  him  and  the  demands  of  the 
Master  more  distinctly  brought  to  his  attention  than 
ever. 

Again,  as  before  when  he  rose  in  the  morning, 
Phillip  found  that  his  visitor  was  gone.  His  eccen- 
tric movements  accounted  for  his  sudden  disap- 
pearances, but  Phillip  was  disappointed.  He 
wanted  to  see  his  guest  again  and  question  him 
about  his  history.  He  promised  himself  he  would 
do  so  next  time. 

The  following  Sunday  Phillip   preached   one   of 


1 68       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

those  sermons  which  come  to  a  man  once  or  twice 
in  a  whole  ministry.  It  was  the  last  Sunday  of 
the  month  and  not  a  special  occasion.  But  there 
had  surged  into  his  thought  the  meaning  of  the 
Christian  life  with  such  uncontrollable  power  that 
his  sermon  reached  hearts  never  before  touched. 
He  remained  at  the  close  of  the  service  to  talk  with 
several  young  men,  who  seemed  moved  as  never 
before.  After  they  had  gone  away  Phillip  went  into 
his  own  room  back  of  the  platform  to  get  something 
he  had  left  there,  and  to  his  surprise  found  the 
church  sexton  kneeling  down  by  one  of  the  chairs. 
As  the  minister  came  in  the  man  rose  and  turned 
to  him. 

"  Mr.  Strong,  I  want  to  be  a  Christian.  I  want 
to  join  the  church  and  lead  a  different  life." 

Phillip  clasped  the  man's  hand  while  tears  rolled 
over  his  face.  He  stayed  and  talked  with  him  and 
prayed  with  him,  and  when  he  finally  went  home  the 
minister  was  convinced  it  was  as  strong  and  true  a 
conversion  as  he  had  even  seen.  He  at  once  re- 
lated the  story  to  his  wife,  who  had  gone  on  home 
to  get  dinner. 

"  Why,  Phillip,"  she  exclaimed  when  he  said  the 
sexton  wanted  to  be  baptized  and  unite  with  the 
church  at  the  next  communion,  "  Calvary  Church 
never  will  allow  him  to  unite  with  us  !  " 

"Why  not?"  asked  Phillip,  in  amazement. 

"  Because  he  is  a  negro  !  "  replied  his  wife. 

Phillip  stood  a  moment  in  silence  with  his  hat  in 
his  hand,  looking  at  his  wife  as  she  spoke. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

"TTT'ELL,"  said  Phillip,  slowly,  as  he  seemed  to 

VV  grasp  the  meaning  of  his  wife's  words, 
"to  tell  the  truth,  I  never  thought  of  that !  "  He 
sat  down  and  looked  troubled.  "Do  you  think, 
Sarah,  that  because  he  is  a  negro  the  church  will 
refuse  to  receive  him  to  membership?  It  would 
not  be  Christian  to  refuse  him." 

"  There  are  other  things  that  are  Christian  which 
the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth  does  not  do,  Phillip," 
replied  his  wife,  almost  bitterly.  "  But  whatever 
else  Calvary  Church  may  do  or  not  do,  I  am  very 
certain  it  will  never  consent  to  admit  to  member- 
ship a  black  man." 

"But  there  are  so  few  negroes  in  Milton  that 
they  have  no  church.  I  cannot  counsel  him  to 
unite  with  his  own  people.  Calvary  Church  must 
admit  him  !  "  Phillip  spoke  with  the  quiet  deter- 
mination which  always  marked  his  convictions  when 
they  were  settled. 

"  But  suppose  the  committee  refuses  to  report 
his  name  favorably  to  the  church,  —  what  then?" 
Mrs.  Strong  spoke  with  a  gleam  of  hope  in  her  heart 
that  Phillip  would  be  roused  to  such  indignation 
that  he  would  resign  and  leave  Milton. 


I ;o       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

Phillip  did  not  reply  at  once.  He  was  having  an 
inward  struggle  with  his  sensitiveness  and  his  inter- 
pretation of  his  Christ.  At  last  he  said  :  — 

"  I  don't  know,  Sarah.  I  shall  do  what  I  think 
He  would.  What  I  shall  do  afterwards,  that  will 
also  depend  on  what  Christ  would  do.  I  cannot 
decide  it  yet.  I  have  great  faith  in  the  Church  on 
earth." 

"And  yet  what  has  it  done  for  you  so  far, 
Phillip?  The  business  men  still  own  and  rent  the 
saloons  and  gambling-houses.  The  money  spent 
by  the  church  is  all  out  of  proportion  to  its  wealth. 
Here  you  give  half  your  salary  to  build  up  the  king- 
dom of  God,  and  more  than  a  dozen  men  in  Calvary 
who  are  worth  fifty  and  a  hundred  thousand  dollars 
give  less  than  a  hundredth  part  of  their  incomes  to 
Christian  work  in  connection  with  the  Church.  It 
makes  my  blood  boil,  Phillip,  to  see  how  you  are 
throwing  your  life  away  in  these  miserable  tene- 
ments, and  wasting  your  appeals  on  a  church  that 
plainly  does  not  want  to  do  as  Christ  would  have  it. 
And  I  don't  believe  it  ever  will." 

"  I  'm  not  so  sure  of  that,  Sarah,"  replied  Phillip, 
cheerfully.  "  I  believe  I  shall  win  them  yet.  The 
only  thing  that  sometimes  troubles  me  is  the  thought, 
Am  I  doing  just  as  Christ  would  do?  Am  I 
saying  what  he  would  say  in  this  age  of  the  world? 
There  is  one  thing  of  which  I  am  certain,  —  I  am 
trying  to  do  just  as  I  believe  he  would.  The  mis- 
takes I  make  are  those  which  spring  from  my  failure 
to  interpret  his  action  right.  And  yet  I  do  feel 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       171 

deep  in  me  that  if  he  were  pastor  of  this  church 
here  to-day,  he  would  do  most  of  the  things  I  have 
done ;  he  would  preach  most  of  the  truths  I  have 
proclaimed.  Don't  you  think  so,  Sarah?" 

"I  don't  know,  Phillip.  Yes,  I  think  in  most 
things  you  have  made  an  honest  attempt  to  interpret 
him." 

"  And  in  the  matter  of  the  sexton,  Sarah,  — 
would  n't  Christ  tell  Calvary  Church  that  it  should 
admit  him  to  its  membership?  Would  he  make 
any  distinction  of  persons?  If  the  man  is  a  Chris- 
tian, thoroughly  converted,  and  wants  to  be  baptized 
and  unite  with  Christ's  body  on  earth,  would  Christ 
as  pastor  refuse  him  admission?  " 

"  There  is  a  great  deal  of  race  prejudice  among 
the  people.  If  you  press  the  matter,  Phillip,  I  feel 
sure  it  will  meet  with  great  opposition." 

"  That  is  not  the  question  with  me.  Would  Christ 
tell  Calvary  Church  that  the  man  ought  to  be  ad- 
mitted ?  That  is  the  question.  I  believe  he  would," 
added  Phillip,  with  his  sudden  grasp  of  practical 
action.  And  Mrs.  Stron  knew  that  settled  it  with 
her  husband. 

It  was  the  custom  in  Calvary  Church  for  the 
church  committee  on  new  names  for  membership 
to  meet  at  the  minister's  house  on  the  Monday 
evening  preceding  the  preparatory  service.  At  that 
service  all  names  presented  to  the  committee  were 
formally  acted  upon  by  the  church.  The  com- 
mittee's action  was  generally  considered  final,  and 
the  voting  by  the  church  was  in  accordance  with 
the  committee's  report. 


172       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

So  when  the  committee  came  in  that  evening 
following  the  Sunday  that  had  witnessed  the  con- 
version of  the  sexton,  Phillip  had  ready  a  list  of 
names,  including  those  of  several  young  men.  It 
was  a  very  precious  list  to  him.  It  seemed  almost 
for  the  first  time  since  he  came  to  Milton  that  the 
growing  opposition  to  him  was  about  to  be  checked, 
and  finally  submerged  beneath  a  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  which  it  was  Phillip's  daily  prayer  might 
come  and  do  the  work  which  he  alone  could  not  do. 
That  was  one  reason  he  had  borne  the  feeling 
against  himself  so  calmly. 

Phillip  read  the  list  over  to  the  committee,  saying 
something  briefly  about  nearly  all  the  applicants  for 
membership  and  expressing  his  joy  that  the  young 
men  especially  were  coming  into  the  church  family. 
When  he  reached  the  sexton's  name  he  related, 
simply,  the  scene  with  him  after  the  morning  service. 

There  was  an  awkward  pause  then.  The  com- 
mittee was  plainly  astonished.  Finally  one  said, 
"  Brother  Strong,  I  'm  afraid  the  church  will  object 
to  receiving  the  sexton.  What  is  his  name?  " 

"  Henry  Roland." 

"  Why,  he  has  been  sexton  of  Calvary  Church  for 
ten  years,"  said  another,  an  older  member  of  the 
committee,  Deacon  Stearns  by  name.  "  He  has 
been  an  honest  capable  man.  I  never  heard  any 
complaint  of  him.  He  has  always  minded  his  own 
business.  However,  I  don't  know  how  the  church 
will  take  it  to  consider  him  as  an  applicant  for 
membership." 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      173 

"  Why,  brethren,  how  can  it  take  it  in  any  except 
the  Christian  way?  "  said  Phillip,  eagerly.  "  Here  is 
a  man  who  gives  evidence  of  being  born  again.  He 
cannot  be  present  to-night  when  the  other  applicants 
come  in  later,  owing  to  work  he  must  do,  but  I  can 
say  for  him  that  he  gave  all  evidence  of  a  most 
sincere  and  thorough  conversion ;  he  wishes  to  be 
baptized ;  he  wants  to  unite  with  the  church.  He 
is  of  more  than  average  intelligence.  He  is  not  a 
person  to  thrust  himself  into  places  where  people 
do  not  want  him,  —  a  temperate,  industrious,  modest, 
quiet  workman,  a  Christian  believer  asking  us  to 
receive  him  at  the  communion  table  of  our  Lord. 
There  is  no  church  of  his  own  people  here.  On 
what  possible  pretext  can  the  church  refuse  to  admit 
him?" 

"You  do  not  know  some  of  the  members  of 
Calvary  Church,  Mr.  Strong,  if  you  ask  such  a 
question.  There  is  a  very  strong  prejudice  against 
the  negro  in  many  families.  This  prejudice  is  spe- 
cially strong  just  at  this  time,  owing  to  several  acts  of 
depredation  committed  by  the  negroes  living  down 
near  the  railroad  tracks.  I  don't  believe  it  would 
be  wise  to  present  this  name  just  now."  Deacon 
Stearns  appeared  to  speak  for  the  committee,  all 
of  whom  murmured  assent  in  one  form  or  another. 

"And  yet,"  said  Phillip,  roused  to  a  sudden  heat 
of  indignation,  "and  yet  what  is  Calvary  Church 
doing  to  help  to  make  those  men  down  by  the  rail- 
road tracks  any  better?  Are  we  concerned  about 
them  at  all  except  when  our  coal  or  wood  or 


174      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

clothing  is  stolen,  or  some  one  is  held  up  down 
there  ?  And  when  one  of  them  knocks  at  the  door 
of  the  church,  can  we  calmly  shut  it  in  his  face 
simply  because  the  good  God  made  it  a  different 
color  from  ours?  "  Phillip  stopped  and  then  finished 
by  saying  very  quietly,  "  Brethren,  do  you  think 
Christ  would  receive  this  man  into  his  Church?  " 

There  was  no  reply  for  a  moment.  Then  Dea- 
con Stearns  answered,  "  Brother  Strong,  we  have  to 
deal  with  humanity  as  it  is.  You  cannot  make  peo- 
ple all  over.  This  prejudice  exists  and  sometimes 
we  may  have  to  respect  it  in  order  to  avoid  greater 
trouble.  I  know  families  in  the  church  who  will 
certainly  withdraw  if  the  sexton  is  voted  in  as  a 
member.  And  still,"  said  the  old  deacon,  with  a 
sigh,  "  I  believe  Christ  would  receive  him  into  his 
Church." 

Before  much  more  could  be  said,  the  different 
applicants  came,  and  as  the  custom  was,  after  a 
brief  talk  with  them  about  their  purpose  in  uniting 
and  their  discipleship,  they  withdrew  and  the  com- 
mittee formally  acted  on  the  names  for  presentation 
to  the  church.  The  name  of  Henry  Roland  the 
sexton  was  finally  reported  unfavorably,  three  of 
the  committee  voting  against  it,  Deacon  Steams  at 
last  voting  with  the  minister  to  present  the  sexton's 
name  with  the  others. 

"  Now,  brethren,"  said  Phillip,  with  a  sad  smile,  as 
they  rose  to  go,  "  you  know  I  have  always  been  very 
frank  in  all  our  relations  together.  And  I  am  going 
to  present  the  sexton's  name  to  the  church  Thurs- 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      175 

day  night  and  let  the  church  vote  on  it  in  spite  of 
the  action  here  to-night.  You  know  we  have  only 
recommending  power.  The  church  is  the  final 
authority.  And  it  may  accept  or  reject  any  names 
we  present.  I  cannot  rest  satisfied  until  I  know  the 
verdict  of  the  church  in  the  matter." 

"  Brother  Strong,"  said  one  of  the  committee,  who 
had  been  opposed  to  the  sexton,  "  you  are  right  as 
to  the  extent  of  our  authority.  But  there  is  no 
question  in  my  mind  as  to  the  outcome  of  the  mat- 
ter. It  is  a  question  of  expediency.  I  do  not  have 
any  feeling  against  the  sexton.  But  I  think  it  would 
be  very  unwise  to  receive  him  into  membership,  and 
I  do  not  believe  the  church  will  receive  him.  If 
you  present  the  name,  you  do  so  on  your  own 
responsibility." 

"  With  mine,"  said  Deacon  Stearns.  He  was  the 
last  to  shake  hands  with  the  minister,  and  his  warm, 
strong  clasp  gave  Phillip  a  sense  of  fellowship  that 
thrilled  him  with  a  feeling  of  courage  and  com- 
panionship very  much  needed.  He  at  once  went 
up  to  his  study  after  the  committee  was  gone. 
Mrs.  Strong,  coming  up  to  see  him  later,  found  him 
as  she  often  did  now,  on  his  knees  in  prayer.  Ah, 
thou  follower  of  Jesus  in  this  century,  what  but  thy 
prayers  shall  strengthen  thy  soul  in  the  strange  days 
to  come? 

Thursday  evening  was  stormy.  A  heavy  rain  had 
set  in  before  dark  and  a  high  wind  blew  great  sheets 
of  water  through  the  streets  and  rattled  loose  boards 
and  shingles  about  the  tenements.  Phillip  would 


176      THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

not  let  his  wife  go  out ;  it  was  too  stormy.  So  he 
went  his  way  alone,  somewhat  sorrowful  at  heart  as 
he  contemplated  the  prospect  of  a  small  attendance 
on  what  he  had  planned  should  be  an  important 
occasion. 

However,  some  of  the  best  members  of  the  church 
were  out.  The  very  ones  that  were  in  sympathy 
with  Phillip  and  his  methods  were  in  the  majority 
of  those  present,  and  that  led  to  an  unexpected 
result  when  the  names  of  the  applicants  for  mem- 
bership came  before  the  church  for  action. 

Phillip  read  the  list  approved  by  the  committee 
and  then  very  simply  but  powerfully  told  the  sex- 
ton's story  and  the  refusal  of  the  committee  to 
recommend  him  for  membership. 

"Now,  I  do  not  see  how  we  can  shut  this  dis- 
ciple of  Jesus  out  of  his  Church,"  concluded  Phillip. 
"And  I  wish  to  present  him  to  this  church  for 
its  action.  He  is  a  Christian ;  he  needs  our  help 
and  our  fellowship ;  and  as  Christian  believers,  as. 
disciples  of  the  Man  of  all  the  race,  as  those  who 
believe  that  there  is  to  be  no  distinction  of  souls 
hereafter  that  shall  separate  them  by  prejudice,  I 
hope  you  will  vote  to  receive  this  brother  in  Christ 
to  our  membership." 

The  voting  on  new  members  was  done  by  ballot. 
When  the  ballots  were  all  in  and  counted  it  was  an- 
nounced that  all  whose  names  were  presented  were 
unanimously  elected  except  the  sexton.  There  were 
twelve  votes  against  him,  but  twenty- six  for  him, 
and  Phillip  declared  that  according  to  the  con- 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       177 

stitution  of  the  church  he  was  duly  elected.  The 
meeting  then  went  on  in  the  usual  manner  charac- 
teristic of  preparatory  service.  The  sexton  had 
been  present  in  the  back  part  of  the  room,  and  at 
the  close  of  the  meeting,  after  all  the  rest  had  gone, 
he  and  Phillip  had  a  long  talk  with  each  other. 
When  Phillip  reached  home  he  and  Sarah  had  an- 
other long  talk  on  the  same  subject.  What  that 
was  we  cannot  tell  until  we  come  to  record  the 
events  of  the  Communion  Sunday,  a  day  that  stood 
out  in  Phillip's  memory  like  one  of  the  bleeding 
palms  of  the  Master,  pierced  with  sorrow  but  elo- 
quent with  sacrifice. 

The  day  was  beautiful,  and  the  church  as  usual 
crowded  to  the  doors.  There  was  a  feeling  of  hardly 
concealed  excitement  on  the  part  of  Calvary  Church. 
The  action  of  Thursday  night  had  been  sharply  crit- 
icised. Very  many  thought  Phillip  had  gone  be- 
yond his  right  in  bringing  such  an  important  subject 
before  so  small  a  meeting  of  the  members ;  and 
the  prospect  of  the  approaching  baptism  and  com- 
munion of  the  sexton  had  drawn  in  a  crowd  of  peo- 
ple who  ordinarily  stayed  away  from  that  service. 

Phillip  generally  had  no  preaching  on  Communion 
Sunday.  This  morning  he  remained  on  the  plat- 
form after  the  opening  exercises  and  in  a  stillness 
which  was  almost  painful  in  its  intensity,  he  began 
to  speak  in  a  low  but  clear  and  impressive  voice. 

"  Fellow-disciples  of  the  Church  of  Christ  on 
earth,  we  meet  to  celebrate  the  memory  of  that 
greatest  of  all  beings,  who  on  the  eve  of  his  own 

12 


178      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

greatest  agony  prayed  that  his  disciples  might  all  be 
one.  In  that  prayer  he  said  nothing  about  color  or 
race  or  difference  of  speech  or  social  surroundings. 
His  prayer  was  that  his  disciples  might  all  be  one,  — 
one  in  their  aims,  in  their  purposes,  their  sympathy, 
their  faith,  their  hope,  their  love. 

"An  event  has  happened  in  this  church  very 
recently  which  makes  it  necessary  for  me  to  say 
these  words.  The  Holy  Spirit  came  into  this  room 
last  Sunday  and  touched  the  hearts  of  several  young 
men  who  gave  themselves  then  and  here  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Among  the  men  was  one  of  another 
race  from  the  Anglo  Saxon.  He  was  a  black  man. 
His  heart  was  melted  by  the  same  love,  his  mind 
illuminated  by  the  same  truth,  he  desired  to  make 
confession  of  his  belief,  be  baptized  according  to  the 
commands  of  Jesus,  and  unite  with  this  church  as  a 
humble  disciple  of  the  lowly  Nazarene.  His  name 
was  presented  with  the  rest  at  the  regular  committee 
meeting  last  Monday,  and  that  committee,  by  a  vote 
of  three  to  two,  refused  to  present  his  name  with 
recommendations  for  membership.  On  my  own  re- 
sponsibility at  the  preparatory  service  Thursday  night 
I  asked  the  church  to  act  upon  this  disciple's  name. 
There  was  a  regular  quorum  of  the  church  present. 
By  a  vote  of  26  to  12  the  applicant  for  membership 
was  received  according  to  the  rules  of  this  church. 

"  But  after  that  meeting  the  man  came  to  me  and 
said  that  he  was  unwilling  to  unite  with  the  church 
knowing  that  some  objected  to  his  membership.  It 
was  a  natural  feeling  for  him  to  have.  We  had  a 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      179 

long  talk  over  the  matter.  Since  then  I  have 
learned  that  if  a  larger  representation  of  members 
had  been  present  at  preparatory  meeting,  there  is  a 
possibility  that  the  number  voting  against  receiving 
the  applicant  would  have  been  much  larger  than 
those  who  voted  for  him. 

"  Under  all  these  circumstances  I  have  deemed  it 
my  duty  to  say  what  I  have  thus  far  said,  and  to  ask 
the  church  to  take  the  action  I  now  propose.  We 
are  met  here  this  morning  in  full  membership. 
Here  is  a  soul  just  led  out  of  the  darkness  by  the 
Spirit  of  truth.  He  is  one  known  to  many  of  you  as 
an  honest,  worthy  man,  for  many  years  faithful  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duties  in  this  house.  There  is  no 
Christian  reason  why  he  should  be  denied  fellowship 
around  this  table.  I  wish  therefore  to  ask  the  mem- 
bers of  the  church  to  vote  again  on  the  acceptance 
or  rejection  of  Henry  Roland,  disciple  of  Jesus,  who 
has  asked  for  admission  to  this  body  of  Christ  in  his 
name.  Will  all  those  in  favor  of  thus  receiving  our 
brother  into  the  great  family  of  faith  signify  it  by 
raising  the  right  hand?  " 

For  a  moment  not  a  person  in  the  church  stirred. 
Every  one  seemed  smitten  into  astonished  inaction 
by  the  sudden  proposal  of  the  minister.  Then 
hands  began  to  go  up.  Phillip  counted  them,  his 
heart  beating  with  anguish  as  he  foresaw  the  coming 
result.  He  waited  a  moment,  it  seemed  to  many 
like  several  minutes,  and  then  said,  "  All  those  op- 
posed to  the  admission  of  the  applicant  signify  it  by 
the  same  sign." 


l8o       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

Again  there  was  the  same  significant,  reluctant 
pause.  Then  hands  went  up  in  numbers  that  almost 
doubled  those  who  had  voted  in  favor  of  admission. 
From  the  gallery  on  the  sides,  where  several  of 
Phillip's  working-men  friends  sat,  a  hiss  arose.  It 
was  slight,  but  heard  by  the  entire  congregation. 
Phillip  glanced  up  there  and  it  instantly  ceased. 

Without  another  word  he  stepped  down  from  the 
platform  and  began  to  read  the  list  of  those  who 
had  been  received  into  church-membership.  He 
had  reached  the  end  of  it  when  the  person  whose 
name  was  called  last  rose  from  his  seat  near  the 
front,  where  all  the  newly  received  members  usually 
sat  together,  and  turning  partly  around  so  as  to  face 
the  congregation  and  still  address  Phillip,  he  said  : 

"  Mr.  Strong,  I  do  not  feel,  after  what  has  taken 
place  here  this  morning  that  I  could  unite  with  this 
church.  This  man  who  has  been  excluded  from 
church- membership  is  the  son  of  a  woman  bora 
into  slavery  on  the  estate  of  one  of  my  relatives. 
That  slave  woman  once  nursed  her  master  through 
a  terrible  illness  and  saved  his  life.  This  man,  her 
son,  was  then  a  little  child.  But  in  the  strange 
changes  that  have  gone  on  since  the  war,  the  son  of 
the  old  master  has  been  reduced  to  poverty  and 
obliged  to  work  for  a  living.  He  is  now  in  this 
town.  He  is  this  very  day  lying  upon  a  dying  bed 
in  the  tenement  district.  And  this  black  man  has 
for  several  weeks  out  of  his  small  earnings  helped 
the  son  of  his  mother's  old  master  and  cared  for  him 
through  his  illness  with  all  the  devotion  of  a  friend. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      181 

I  have  only  lately  learned  these  facts.  But  knowing 
them  as  I  do  and  believing  that  he  is  as  worthy  to 
sit  about  this  table  as  any  Christian  here,  I  cannot 
reconcile  the  rejection  with  my  own  purpose  to 
unite  here.  I  therefore  desire  to  withdraw  my 
application  for  membership.  Mr.  Strong,  I  desire 
to  be  baptized  and  partake  of  the  communion  as  a 
a  disciple  of  Christ,  simply,  not  as  a  member  of 
Calvary  Church.  Can  I  do  so?  " 

Phillip  replied  in  a  choking  voice,  "  You  can." 
The  man  sat  down.  It  was  not  the  place  for  any 
demonstration,  but  again  from  the  gallery  came  a 
slight  but  distinct  note  of  applause.  As  before,  it 
instantly  subsided  when  Phillip  looked  up.  For  a 
moment  every  one  held  his  breath  and  waited  for 
the  minister's  action.  Phillip's  face  was  pale  and 
stern.  What  his  sensitive  nature  suffered  in  that 
moment  no  one  ever  knew,  not  even  his  wife,  who 
almost  started  from  her  seat  fearing  that  he  was 
about  to  faint.  For  a  moment  there  was  a  hesita- 
tion about  Phillip's  manner  so  unusual  with  him  that 
some  thought  he  was  going  to  leave  the  church. 
But  he  quickly  called  on  his  will  to  assert  its  power, 
and  taking  up  the  regular  communion  service  he 
calmly  took  charge  of  it  as  if  nothing  out  of  the  way 
had  occurred.  He  did  not  even  allude  to  the 
morning's  incident  in  his  prayers.  Whatever  else 
the  people  might  think  of  Phillip,  they  certainly 
could  find  no  fault  with  his  self-possession.  His 
conduct  of  the  service  on  that  memorable  Sunday 
was  admirable. 


182       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

When  it  was  over  he  was  surrounded  by  many 
who  had  taken  part  either  for  or  against  the  sex- 
ton. There  was  much  said  about  the  matter. 
But  all  the  arguments  and  excuses  and  comments 
on  the  affair  could  not  remove  the  heart-ache  from 
Phillip.  He  could  not  reconcile  the  action  of  the 
church  with  the  spirit  of  the  church's  Master, 
Jesus ;  and  when  he  reached  home  and  calmly 
reviewed  the  events  of  the  morning  he  was  more 
and  more  grieved  for  the  church.  It  seemed  to  him 
that  a  great  mistake  had  been  made,  and  that  Cal- 
vary Church  had  disgraced  the  name  of  Christianity. 

As  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  doing  since  he 
moved  into  the  neighborhood  of  the  tenements, 
Phillip  went  out  in  the  afternoon  to  visit  the  sick 
and  troubled.  The  shutting  down  of  the  mills  had 
resulted  in  an  immense  amount  of  suffering  and 
trouble.  As  spring  came -on  some  few  of  the  mills 
had  opened,  and  men  had  found  work  in  them  at  a 
reduction  of  wages.  The  entire  history  of  the 
enforced  idleness  of  thousands  of  men  in  Milton 
during  that  eventful  winter  would  make  a  large 
volume  of  thrilling  narrative.  Phillip's  story  but 
touches  on  this  other.  He  had  grown  rapidly 
familiar  with  the  different  phases  of  life  which 
loafed  and  idled  and  drank  itself  away  during  that 
period  of  inaction.  Hundreds  of  men  had  drifted 
away  to  other  places  in  search  of  work.  Almost  as 
many  more  had  taken  to  the  road  to  swell  the  ever- 
increasing  number  of  professional  tramps,  and  in 
time  to  develop  into  petty  thieves  and  criminals. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG-      183 

But  those  who  remained  had  a  desperate  struggle 
with  poverty.  Phillip  grew  sick  at  heart  as  he  went 
among  the  people  and  saw  the  complete  helpless- 
ness, the  utter  estrangement  of  sympathy  and  com- 
munity of  feeling  between  the  church  people  and 
the  representatives  of  the  physical  labor  of  the 
world.  Every  time  he  went  out  to  do  his  visiting 
this  feeling  deepened  in  him.  This  Sunday  after- 
noon in  particular  it  seemed  to  him  that  the  depres- 
sion and  discouragement  of  the  tenement  district 
weighed  on  him  like  a  great  burden,  bearing  him 
down  to  the  earth  with  sorrow  and  heart-ache. 

It  had  been  his  custom  to  go  out  on  Communion 
Sunday  with  the  emblems  of  Christ  to  observe  the 
rite  by  the  bedsides  of  the  aged  or  ill,  or  with  those 
who  could  not  get  out  to  church.  He  carried  with 
him  this  time  a  basket  containing  a  part  of  the 
communion  service.  After  going  to  the  homes  of 
one  or  two  invalid  church-members,  he  thought  of 
the  person  who  had  been  mentioned  by  the  man  in 
the  morning  as  living  in  the  tenement  district  and 
in  a  critical  condition.  He  had  secured  his  address 
and  after  a  little  inquiry  he  soon  found  himself  in  a 
part  of  the  tenements  new  to  him. 

He  climbed  up  three  flights  of  stairs  and  knocked 
at  the  door.  It  was  opened  by  the  sexton.  He 
greeted  Phillip  with  glad  surprise. 

The  minister  smiled  sadly. 

"  So,  my  brother,  it  is  true  you  are  serving  your 
Master  here  ?  My  heart  is  grieved  at  the  action  of 
the  church  this  morning." 


184      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF   PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"Don't  say  anything,  Mr.  Strong.  You  did  all 
you  could.  But  you  are  just  in  time  to  see  him." 
The  sexton  pointed  into  a  cmall  back  room.  "  He 
is  going  fast.  I  didn't  suppose  he  was  so  near. 
I  would  have  asked  you  to  come,  but  did  not  think 
he  was  failing  so." 

Phillip  followed  the  sexton  into  the  room.  The 
son  of  the  old  slave-master  was  sinking  rapidly. 
He  was  conscious,  however,  and  at  Phillip's  quiet 
question  concerning  his  peace  with  God,  a  smile 
passed  over  his  face  and  he  moved  his  lips.  Phillip 
understood  him.  A  sudden  thought  occurred  to 
Phillip.  He  opened  his  basket,  took  out  the  bread 
and  wine,  set  them  on  the  small  table  and  said  :  — 
"  Disciple  of  Jesus,  would  you  like  to  partake  of 
the  blessed  communion  once  more  before  you  see 
the  King  in  his  glory?" 

The  gleam  of  satisfaction  in  the  man's  eyes  told 
Phillip  enough.  The  sexton  said  in  a  low  voice, 
"  He  belonged  to  the  Southern  Episcopal  Church 
in  Virginia."  Something  in  the  wistful  look  of  the 
sexton  gave  Phillip  an  inspiration  for  what  followed. 
"  Brother,"  he  said,  turning  to  the  sexton,  "  what 
is  to  hinder  your  baptism  and  partaking  of  the  com- 
munion? Yes,  this  is  Christ's  Church  wherever  his 
true  disciples  are." 

Then  the  sexton  brought  a  basin  of  water ;  and 
as  he  kneeled  down  by  the  side  of  the  bed,  Phillip 
baptized  him  with  the  words,  "  I  baptize  thee, 
Henry,  my  brother,  disciple  of  Jesus,  into  the  name 
of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost !  Amen." 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       185 

"Amen,"  murmured  the  man  on  the  bed. 

Then  Phillip,  still  standing  as  he  was,  bowed  his 
head,  saying,  "  Blessed  Lord  Jesus,  accept  these 
children  of  thine,  bless  this  new  disciple,  and  unite 
our  hearts  in  love  for  thee  and  thy  kingdom  as  we 
remember  thee  now  in  this  service." 

He  took  the  bread  and  said  :  " '  Take,  eat.  This 
is  my  body,  broken  for  you.'  In  the  name  of  the 
Master  who  said  these  words,  eat,  remembering  his 
love  for  us." 

The  dying  man  could  not  lift  his  hand  to  take 
the  bread  from  the  plate.  Phillip  gently  placed  a 
crumb  between  his  lips,  and  then  taking  up  the  cup, 
he  said :  "  In  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  this 
cup  is  the  new  testament  in  his  blood  shed  for  all 
mankind  for  the  remission  of  sins."  He  carried 
the  cup  to  the  lips  of  the  man  and  then  gave  to 
the  sexton.  The  smile  on  the  dying  man's  face 
died  out.  The  gray  shadow  of  the  last  enemy 
was  projected  into  the  room  from  the  setting  sun 
of  death's  approaching  twilight.  The  son  of  the 
old  slave-master  was  going  to  meet  the  mother  of 
the  man  who  was  born  into  the  darkness  of  slavery, 
but  born  again  into  the  light  of  God.  Perhaps, 
perhaps,  he  thought,  who  knows  but  the  first  news 
he  would  bring  to  her  would  be  the  news  of  that 
communion?  Certain  it  is  that  his  hand  moved 
vaguely  over  the  blanket.  It  slipped  over  the  edge 
of  the  bed  and  fell  upon  the  bowed  head  of  the 
sexton  and  remained  there  as  if  in  benediction. 
And  so  the  shadow  deepened,  and  at  last  it  was 


l86      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

like  unto  nothing  else  known  to  the  sons  of  men  on 
earth,  and  the  spirit  leaped  out  of  its  clay  tene- 
ment with  the  breath  of  the  communion  wine  still 
on  the  lips  of  the  frail,  perishable  body. 

Phillip  reverently  raised  the  arm  and  laid  it  on  the 
bed.  The  sexton  rose,  and  while  the  tears  rolled  over 
his  face  he  gazed  long  into  the  countenance  of  the 
son  of  his  old  master.  No  division  of  race  now. 
No  false  and  selfish  prejudice  here.  Come  !  Let 
the  neighbors  of  the  dead  come  in  to  do  the  last 
sad  offices  to  the  casket.  For  the  soul  of  this 
disciple  is  in  mansions  of  glory,  and  it  shall  hunger 
no  more,  neither  shall  the  darkness  of  death  ever 
again  smite  it ;  for  it  shall  live  forever  in  the  light 
of  that  Lamb  of  God  who  gave  himself  for  the 
remission  of  sins  and  the  life  everlasting. 

Phillip  did  what  he  could  on  such  an  occasion. 
It  was  not  an  altogether  unusual  event ;  he  had 
prayed  by  many  a  poor  creature  in  the  clutch  of 
the  last  enemy,  and  he  was  familiar  with  the  enemy's 
face  in  the  tenements.  But  this  particular  scene 
had  a  meaning  and  left  an  impression  different  from 
any  he  had  known  before.  When  finally  he  was  at 
liberty  to  go  home  for  a  little  rest  before  the  even- 
ing service  he  found  himself  more  than  usually 
tired  and  sorrowful.  Mrs.  Strong  noticed  it  as  he 
came  in.  She  made  him  lie  down  and  urged  him 
to  give  up  his  evening  service. 

"  No,  no,  Sarah  !  I  can't  do  that !  I  am  pre- 
pared ;  I  must  preach  !  I  '11  get  a  nap  and  then 
I  '11  feel  better,"  he  said. 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      187 

Mrs.  Strong  shook  her  head,  but  Phillip  was  deter- 
mined. He  slept  a  little,  ate  a  little  lunch,  and 
when  the  time  of  service  came  he  went  up  to  the 
church  again.  As  his  habit  was,  just  before  the 
hour  of  beginning  he  went  into  the  little  room  at 
the  side  of  the  platform  to  pray  by  himself.  When 
he  came  out  and  began  the  service  no  one  could 
have  told  from  his  manner  that  he  was  suffering 
physically.  Even  Mrs.  Strong,  who  watched  him 
anxiously,  felt  relieved  to  see  how  quiet  and  com- 
posed he  was. 

He  had  commenced  his  sermon  and  had  been 
preaching  with  great  eloquence  for  ten  minutes, 
when  he  felt  a  strange  dizziness  and  a  pain  in  his 
side  that  made  him  catch  his  breath  and  clutch  the 
side  of  the  pulpit  to  keep  from  falling.  It  passed 
away  and  he  went  on.  It  was  only  a  slight  hesita- 
tion and  no  one  remarked  anything  out  of  the  way. 
For  five  minutes  he  spoke  with  increasing  power 
and  feeling.  The  church  was  filled.  It  was  very 
quiet.  Suddenly  without  any  warning  he  threw  up 
his  arms,  uttered  a  cry  of  half-suppressed  agony, 
and'  then  fell  over  backward.  A  thrill  of  excite- 
ment ran  through  the  audience.  For  a  moment  no 
one  moved ;  then  every  one  rose.  The  men  in 
the  front  pews  rushed  up  to  the  platform.  Mrs. 
Strong  was  already  there.  Phillip's  head  was  raised. 
His  old  friend  the  surgeon  was  in  the  crowd  and 
he  at  once  examined  him.  He  was  not  dead,  and 
the  doctor  at  once  directed  the  proper  steps  for 
his  removal  from  the  church.  As  he  was  being 


l88       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

carried  out  into  the  air  he  revived  and  was  able  to 
speak. 

"  Take  me  home,"  he  whispered  to  his  wife,  who 
hung  over  him  in  a  terror  as  great  as  her  love  for 
him  at  that  moment.  A  carriage  was  called  and  he 
was  taken  home.  The  doctor  remained  until  Phillip 
was  fully  conscious. 

"  It  was  very  warm  and  I  was  very  tired  and  I 
fainted,  eh,  doctor?  First  time  I  ever  did  such  a 
thing  in  my  life.  I  am  ashamed ;  I  spoiled  the 
service."  Philip  uttered  this  slowly  and  feebly 
when  at  last  he  had  recovered  enough  to  know 
where  he  was. 

The  doctor  looked  at  him  suspiciously.  "You 
never  fainted  before,  eh?  Well,  if  I  were  you  I 
would  take  care  not  to  faint  again.  Take  good  care 
of  him,  Mrs.  Strong.  He  needs  rest.  Milton  could 
spare  a  dozen  bad  men  like  me  better  than  one  like 
the  Dominie." 

"  Doctor !  "  cried  Mrs.  Strong,  in  sudden  fear, 
"  what  is  the  matter?  Is  this  serious?  " 

"  Not  at  all.  But  men  like  your  husband  are  in 
need  of  watching.  Take  good  care  of  him." 

"  Good  care  of  him  !  Doctor,  he  will  not  mind 
me  !  I  wanted  him  to  stay  at  home  to-night,  but  he 
would  n't." 

"  Then  put  a  chain  and  padlock  on  him  and  hold 
him  in  !  "  growled  the  surgeon.  He  prescribed  a 
medicine  and  went  away  assuring  Mrs.  Strong  that 
Phillip  would  feel  much  better  in  the  morning. 

The  surgeon's  prediction  came  true.    Phillip  found 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      189 

himself  weak  the  next  day,  but  able  to  get  about. 
In  reply  to  numerous  calls  of  inquiry  for  the  minis- 
ter Mrs.  Strong  was  able  to  report  that  he  was  much 
better.  About  eleven  o'clock  when  the  postman 
called,  Phillip  was  in  his  study  lying  on  his  lounge. 

His  wife  brought  up  two  letters.  One  of  them 
was  from  his  old  chum ;  he  read  that  first.  He 
then  laid  it  down  and  opened  the  other. 

At  that  moment  Mrs.  Strong  was  called  down- 
stairs by  a  ring  at  the  door.  When  she  had 
answered  it  she  came  upstairs  again. 

As  she  came  into  the  room  she  was  surprised  at 
the  queer  look  on  Phillip's  face.  Without  a  word 
he  handed  her  the  letter  he  had  just  opened, 
and  with  the  same  look  watched  her  face  as  she 
read  it. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  letter  which  Phillip  had  received  and  which 
his  wife  now  read  was  as  follows  :  — 

REV.  PHILLIP  STRONG, 

Pastor  Calvary  Church,  Milton : 

DEAR  SIR  AND  BROTHER,  —  The  Seminary  at  Fair- 
view  has  long  been  contemplating  the  addition  to  its 
professorships  of  a  chair  of  Sociology  and  Human 
Nature.  The  lack  of  funds  and  the  absolute  necessity 
of  sufficient  endowment  for  such  a  chair  have  made  it  im- 
possible hitherto  for  the  trustees  to  make  any  definite 
move  in  this  direction.  A  recent  legacy,  of  which  you 
have  doubtless  heard,  has  made  the  founding  of  this 
new  professorship  possible.  And  now  the  trustees  by 
unanimous  vote  have  elected  you  as  the  man  best  fitted 
to  fill  this  chair  of  Sociology.  We  have  heard  of  your 
work  in  Milton  and  know  of  it  personally.  We  are 
assured  you  are  the  man  for  this  place.  We  therefore 
tender  you  most  heartily  the  position  of  Professor  of 
Sociology  at  Fairview  Seminary  at  a  salary  of  twenty 
five  hundred  dollars  a  year  and  a  preliminary  year's  ab- 
sence either  abroad  or  in  this  country  before  you  begin 
actual  labors  with  the  Seminary. 

With  this  formal  call  on  the  part  of  the  trustees  goes 
the  most  earnest  desire  on  the  part  of  all  the  professors 
of  the  Seminary  who  remember  you  in  your  marked 
undergraduate  success  as  a  student  here.  You  will 
meet  with  the  most  loving  welcome,  and  the  Seminary 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG,      igi 

will  be  greatly  strengthened  by  your  presence  in  this 
new  department. 

We  are,  in  behalf  of  the  Seminary, 

Very  cordially  yours,  THE  TRUSTEES. 

Here  followed  their  names,  familiar  to  both  Phillip 
and  his  wife. 

There  was  a  moment  of  astonished  silence  and 
then  Sarah  said  :  — 

"  Well,  Phillip,  that 's  what  I  call  the  finger  of 
Providence  ! " 

"  Do  you  call  it  the  finger  of  Providence  because 
it  points  the  way  you  want  to  go?"  asked  Phillip, 
with  a  smile.  But  his  face  instantly  grew  sober. 
He  was  evidently  very  much  excited  by  the  call  to 
Fairview.  It  had  come  at  a  time  when  he  was  in  a 
condition  to  be  very  much  moved  by  it. 

"  Yes,  Phillip,"  replied  his  wife,  as  she  smoothed 
back  his  hair  from  his  forehead,  "  it  is  very  plain  to 
me  that  you  have  done  all  that  any  one  can  do  here 
in  Milton,  and  this  call  comes  just  in  time.  You 
are  worn  out.  The  church  is  opposed  to  your 
methods.  You  need  a  rest  and  a  change.  And 
besides,  this  is  the  very  work  that  you  have  always 
had  a  liking  for." 

Phillip  said  nothing  for  a  moment.  His  mind 
was  in  a  whirl  of  emotion.  Finally  he  said,  "  Yes,  I 
should  enjoy  such  a  professorship.  It  is  a  very 
tempting  call.  I  feel  drawn  towards  it.  And  yet,"  — 
he  hesitated,  —  "I  don't  know  that  I  ought  to  leave 
Milton  just  now." 


192       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

Mrs.  Strong  was  provoked.  "  Phillip  Strong,  you 
have  lived  this  kind  of  life  long  enough  !  All  your 
efforts  in  Calvary  Church  are  wasted.  What  good 
have  all  your  sermons  done  ?  It  is  all  a  vain  sac- 
rifice, and  the  end  will  be  defeat  and  misery  for  you. 
Add  to  all  this  the  fact  that  this  new  work  will  call 
for  the  best  and  most  Christian  labor,  and  that  some 
good  Christian  man  will  take  it  if  you  don't,  —  and  I 
don't  see,  Phillip,  how  you  can  possibly  think  of 
such  a  thing  as  refusing  this  opportunity." 

"  It  certainly  is  a  splendid  opportunity,  "  mur- 
mured Phillip.  "  I  wonder  why  they  happened  to 
pitch  on  me  for  the  place  ! " 

"  That 's  easy  enough.  Every  one  knows  that  you 
could  fill  that  chair  better  than  almost  any  other  man 
in  the  country." 

"  Do  you  mean  by  '  every  one '  a  little  woman 
named  Sarah?"  asked  Phillip,  with  a  brief  return  of 
his  teasing  habit. 

"  No,  sir,  I  mean  all  the  professors  and  people  in 
Fairview  and  all  the  thinking  people  of  Milton  and 
every  one  who  knows  you,  Phillip.  Every  one 
knows  that  whatever  else  you  lack  it  isn't  brains." 

"  I  'd  like  to  borrow  some  just  now,  though,  for  I 
seem  to  have  lost  most  of  mine.  Lend  me  yours, 
won't  you,  Sarah,  until  I  settle  this  question  of  the 
call?" 

"No,  sir,  if  you  can't  settle  a  plain  question  like 
this  with  all  your  own  brains  you  could  n't  do  any 
better  with  the  addition  of  the  little  I  have." 

"Then  you  really  think,  do  you,  Sarah,  that  I 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      193 

ought  to  accept  this  as  the  leading  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and  follow  without  hesitation." 

Mrs.  Strong  replied  with  almost  tearful  earnestness  : 

"  Phillip,  it  seems  to  me  like  the  leading  of  his 
hand.  Surely  you  have  shown  your  willingness  and 
your  courage  and  your  self-sacrifice  by  your  work  here. 
But  your  methods  are  distasteful,  and  your  preaching 
has  so  far  roused  only  antagonism.  Oh,  I  dread 
the  thought  of  this  life  for  you  another  day.  It 
looks  to  me  like  a  suicidal  policy,  with  nothing  to 
show  for  it  when  you  have  gone  through  it." 

Phillip  spread  the  letter  out  on  the  couch  and  his 
face  grew  more  and  more  thoughtful  as  he  gazed 
into  the  face  of  his  wife,  and  his  mind  went  over  the 
ground  of  his  church  experience.  If,  only,  he  was 
perhaps  thinking,  if  only  the  good  God  had  not 
given  him  so  sensitive  and  fine-tempered  a  spirit 
of  conscientiousness.  He  almost  envied  men  of 
coarse,  blunt  feelings,  of  common  ideals  of  duty  and 
service. 

His  wife  watched  him  anxiously.  She  knew  it 
was  a  crisis  with  him.  At  last  he  said :  — 

"  Well,  Sarah,  I  don't  know  but  you  're  right. 
The  spirit  is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak.  The 
professorship  would  be  free  from  the  incessant  worry 
and  anxiety  of  a  parish,  and  then  I  might  be  just 
as  useful  in  the  Seminary  as  I  am  here,  —  who 
knows?" 

"  Who  knows,  indeed  !  "  exclaimed  Sarah,  joyfully ; 
at  the  same  time  she  was  almost  crying.  She  picked 
up  the  letter  and  called  Phillip's  attention  to  the 
'3 


194      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

clause  which  granted  him  a  year  abroad  in  case  he 
accepted.  "Think  of  it,  Phillip  !  Your  dream  of 
foreign  travel  can  come  true  now." 

"That  is,"  Phillip  looked  out  of  the  window  over 
the  dingy  roof  of  a  shed  near  by  the  gloomy  tene- 
ments, "  that  is,  supposing  I  decide  to  accept." 

"  Supposing  !  But  you  said,  in  effect  —  Oh, 
Phillip,  say  you  will !  Be  reasonable  !  This  is  the 
opportunity  of  a  lifetime  !  " 

"That 's  true,"  replied  Phillip. 

"  You  may  not  have  another  such  chance  as  this 
as  long  as  you  live.  You  are  young  now  and  with 
every  prospect  of  success  in  work  of  this  kind.  It 
is  new  work,  of  the  kind  you  like.  You  will  have 
leisure  and  means  to  carry  on  important  experi- 
ments, and  influence  for  life  young  men  entering  the 
ministry.  Surely,  Phillip,  there  is  as  great  opportu- 
nity for  usefulness  and  sacrifice  here  as  anywhere. 
It  must  be  that  the  will  of  God  is  in  this.  It  comes 
without  any  seeking  on  your  part." 

"  Yes,  indeed  !  "  Phillip  spoke  with  the  only  touch 
of  pride  he  ever  exhibited.  It  was  pride  in  the 
knowledge  that  he  was  absolutely  free  from  self- 
glory  or  self-seeking. 

"  Then  say  you  will  accept.  Say  you  will, 
Phillip  !  " 

The  appeal,  coming  from  the  person  dearest  to 
him  in  all  the  world,  moved  Phillip  profoundly.  He 
took  the  letter  from  her  hand,  read  it  over  carefully, 
and  again  laid  it  down  on  the  couch.  Then  he 
said  :  — 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      195 

"  Sarah,  I  must  pray  over  it.  I  need  a  little 
time.  You  will  have  reason  —  "  Phillip  paused,  as 
his  manner  sometimes  was,  and  at  that  moment  the 
bell  rang  and  Mrs.  Strong  went  downstairs.  As 
she  went  along  she  felt  almost  persuaded  that  Phillip 
would  yield.  Something  in  his  tone  seemed  to 
imply  that  the  struggle  of  his  mind  was  nearly 
ended. 

The  callers  at  the  door  were  three  men  who  had 
been  to  see  Phillip  several  times  to  talk  with  him 
about  the  mill  troubles  and  the  labor  conflict  in 
general.  They  wanted  to  see  Phillip.  Mrs.  Strong 
was  anxious  about  the  condition  of  Phillip's  health. 
She  asked  the  men  to  come  in,  and  went  upstairs 
again. 

"  Can  you  see  them  ?  Are  you  strong  enough  ?  " 
she  asked. 

,"Yes,  tell  them  to  come  up.  I  am  comfortable 
now." 

Phillip  was  resting  easily,  and  after  a  careful  look  at 
him  Mrs.  Strong  went  downstairs. 

To  her  surprise  two  of  the  men  had  gone.  The 
one  who  remained  explained  that  he  thought  three 
persons  would  excite  or  tire  the  minister  more  than 
one ;  that  he  had  stayed  and  would  not  trouble 
Phillip  long.  But  the  business  on  which  he  came 
was  of  such  an  important  nature  that  he  felt  obliged 
to  see  the  minister  if  he  could  do  so  without  danger 
to  him. 

So  the  man  went  up  and  Phillip  greeted  him  with 
his  usual  heartiness,  excusing  himself  for  not  rising. 


196      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

The  man  took  a  chair,  moved  up  near  the  couch,  and 
sat  down.  He  seemed  a  good  deal  excited,  but  in  a 
suppressed  and  cautious  way. 

"  I  came  to  see  you,  Mr.  Strong,  to  tell  you  about 
a  thing  you  ought  to  know.  There  is  danger  of 
your  life  here." 

"Where?  "  asked  Phillip,  calmly. 

"Here,  in  this  neighborhood." 

"Well?"     Phillip  waited  for  more  explanation. 

"  I  did  n't  want  to  tell  your  wife,  for  fear  of  scar- 
ing her,  but  I  thought  you  ought  to  know,  Mr. 
Strong,  and  then  you  could  take  steps  to  protect 
yourself  or  get  away." 

"  Go  on ;  tell  me  the  worst,"  said  Phillip,  quietly, 
as  the  man  paused. 

"  Well,"  the  man  went  on  in  a  low  tone,  "  two 
others  and  me  overheard  a  talk  last  night  by  the 
men  who  run  the  Star  Saloon  and  den  down  by  the 
Falls.  They  have  a  plan  to  waylay  and  rob  and 
injure  you,  sir,  —  and  do  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
it  seem  like  a  common  hold-up.  They  seemed  to 
know  about  your  habit  of  going  around  through 
the  alleys  and  cross-streets  of  the  tenements.  We 
heard  enough  to  make  us  sure  they  really  and  truly 
meant  to  deal  foul  by  you  first  good  chance,  and 
thought  best  to  put  you  on  your  guard.  The  rummies 
are  down  on  you,  Mr.  Strong,  you  have  been  so  out- 
spoken against  them ;  and  your  lecture  in  the  hall 
last  week  has  made  them  mad,  I  tell  you.  They 
hate  you  worse  than  poison,  for  that's  the  article 
they  seem  to  sell  and  make  a  living  out  of." 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      197 

Phillip  had  the  week  before  addressed  a  large 
gathering  of  working-men,  and  in  the  course  of  his 
speech  he  had  called  attention  to  the  saloon  as  one 
of  the  greatest  pests  of  the  wage-earner. 

"  Is  that  all?  "  Phillip  asked. 

"  All,  man  alive  !  —  is  n't  it  enough  ?  What  more 
do  you  hanker  after?" 

"  Of  course  I  don't '  hanker  after '  being  held  up  or 
attacked,  but  these  men  are  mistaken  if  they  think 
to  frighten  me." 

"They  mean  more  than  frighten,  Mr.  Strong. 
They  mean  business." 

"  Why  don't  you  have  them  arrested,  then,  for  con- 
spiracy ?  If  you  overheard  them  talk  they  are  guilty 
and  could  be  convicted." 

"  Not  in  Milton,  Mr.  Strong.  Besides,  there  was  no 
name  mentioned.  And  the  talk  was  scattering-like. 
They  are  shrewd  devils.  But  we  could  tell  they 
meant  you  plain  enough,  —  not  to  prove  anything  in 
court  though." 

"  And  you  came  to  warn  me  ?  That  was  kind  of 
you,  my  brother  !  "  Phillip  spoke  with  the  winsome 
affection  for  men  that  enabled  him  to  "  grapple  them 
to  his  soul  with  hoops  of  steel." 

"  Yes,  Mr.  Strong,  and  I  tell  you  the  rummies 
will  almost  hold  a  prayer-meeting  when  you  leave 
Milton.  And  they  mean  to  make  you  trouble 
enough  until  you  do  leave.  If  I  was  you,"  the 
man  paused  curiously,  —  "if  I  was  you  I  'd  get  up 
and  leave  this  God-forsaken  town,  Mr.  Strong." 

"You   would?"      Phillip   glanced   at   the   letter 


1 98       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

which  still  lay  open  on  the  couch  beside  him. 
"  Suppose  I  should  say  I  had  about  made  up  my 
mind  to  do  just  that  thing?" 

"  Oh,  no,  Mr.  Strong,  you  don't  mean  that !  " 
The  man  made  a  gesture  toward  Phillip  that  re- 
vealed a  world  of  longing  and  hunger  for  fellowship 
that  made  Phillip's  heart  throb  with  a  feeling  of 
intense  joy  mingled  with  an  ache  of  pain.  The 
man  at  once  repressed  his  emotion.  It  had  been 
like  a  lightning -flash  out  of  a  summer  cloud. 

"  Yes,"  said  Phillip,  as  if  continuing,  "  I  have 
been  thinking  of  leaving  Milton." 

"  That  might  be  best.  You  're  in  danger  here. 
No  telling  when  some  harm  may  come  to  you." 

"  Well,  I  'm  thinking  I  might  as  well  leave.  My 
work  here  has  been  a  failure,  anyway." 

"  What !  A  failure  ?  Mr.  Strong,  you  don't  know 
the  facts.  There  has  never  been  a  minister  in 
Milton  who  did  so  much  for  the  poor  and  the  work- 
ing-man as  yourself!  Let  me  tell  you,"  the  man 
continued  with  an  earnestness  that  concealed  an 
emotion  he  was  trying  to  subdue,  "  Mr.  Strong,  if 
you  were  to  leave  Milton  now  it  would  be  a  greater 
loss  to  the  common  people  than  you  can  imagine. 
You  may  not  know  it,  but  your  influence  among  us 
is  very  great.  I  have  lived  in  Milton  as  boy  and 
man  for  thirty  years,  and  I  never  knew  so  many 
laboring-men  attend  church  and  the  lectures  in  the 
hall  as  during  the  few  months  you  have  been  here. 
Your  work  here  has  not  been  a  failure ;  it  has  been 
a  great  success." 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      199 

A  tear  stole  out  of  Phillip's  eye  and  rolled  down 
and  fell  with  a  warm  splash  on  the  letter  which  lay 
beside  him.  If  a  twenty-five-hundred-dollar  call 
could  be  drowned  by  one  tear  that  professorship 
in  Sociology  in  Fairview  Seminary  was  in  danger. 

"  So  you  think  the  people  in  this  neighborhood 
would  miss  me  a  little  ?  "  He  asked  almost  as 
modestly  as  if  he  were  asking  a  great  favor. 

"  Would  they,  Mr.  Strong  !  You  will  never  know 
what  you  have  done  for  them.  If  the  mill-men 
were  to  hear  of  your  leaving  they  would  come  down 
here  in  a  body  and  almost  compel  you  to  stay.  I 
cannot  bear  to  think  of  your  going.  And  yet  the 
danger  you  are  in,  the  whiskey  men  —  " 

Phillip  roused  himself  up,  interrupting  his  visitor. 
The  old-time  flash  of  righteous  indignation  shot  out 
of  his  eye  as  he  exclaimed  :  "  I  am  more  than  half- 
minded  to  stay  just  on  that  account !  The  rum- 
mies would  think  they  had  beaten  me  out  if  I 
left !  " 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Strong,  I  can't  tell  you  how  glad  we 
would  be  if  you  would  only  stay  !  And  yet —  " 

"  And  yet,"  replied  Phillip,  with  a  sad  smile, 
"  there  are  many  things  to  take  into  the  account. 
I  thank  you  out  of  my  heart  for  the  love  you  have 
shown  me.  It  means  more  than  words  can  express." 
And  Phillip  leaned  back  with  a  wearied  look  on  his 
face,  which,  nevertheless,  revealed  his  deep  satis- 
faction at  the  thought  of  such  friendship  as  this  man 
had  for  him. 

He  was  getting  exhausted  with  the  interview,  fol- 


200      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

lowing  so  soon  on  his  illness  of  the  night  before. 
The  visitor  was  quick  to  notice  it,  and  after  a  warm 
clasp  of  hands  he  went  away.  Phillip,  lying  there 
alone  while  his  wife  was  busy  downstairs,  lived 
an  age  in  a  few  minutes.  All  his  life  so  far  in 
Milton,  the  events  of  his  preaching  and  his  expe- 
riences in  the  church,  his  contact  with  the  work- 
men, his  evident  influence  over  them,  the  thought 
of  what  they  would  feel  in  case  he  left  Milton 
to  accept  this  new  work,  the  dissatisfaction  at  the 
thought  of  an  uncompleted  work  abandoned,  the 
thought  of  the  exultation  of  the  whiskey  men,  —  all 
this  and  much  more  surged  in  and  out  of  his  mind 
and  heart  like  heavy  tides  of  a  heaving  ocean  as  it 
rushes  into  some  deep  fissure  and  then  flows  back 
again  with  noise  and  power.  He  struggled  up  into 
a  sitting  position,  and  with  pain  of  body  almost  fell 
from  the  couch  upon  his  knees,  and  with  his  face 
bowed  upon  the  letter,  which  he  spread  out  before 
him  with  both  hands,  he  sobbed  out  a  yearning  cry 
to  his  Master  for  light  in  his  darkness. 

It  came  as  he  kneeled  there ;  and  it  did  not 
seem  to  him  at  all  strange  or  absurd  that  as  he 
kneeled,  there  came  to  his  thought  a  picture  of 
the  Brother  Man.  And  he  could  almost  hear  the 
Brother  Man  say :  "  Your  work  is  in  Milton,  in 
Calvary  Church  yet.  Except  a  man  shall  renounce 
all  that  he  hath  he  cannot  be  His  disciple."  It 
mattered  not  to  Phillip  that  the  answer  to  his 
prayer  came  in  this  particular  way.  He  was  not 
superstitious  or  morbid,  or  given  to  yielding  to 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      2OI 

impulse  or  fancy.  He  lay  down  upon  the  couch 
again  and  knew  in  his  heart  that  he  was  at  peace 
with  God  and  his  own  conscience  in  deciding  to 
stay  with  Calvary  Church  and  refuse  the  call  to 
Fairview. 

When,  a  few  minutes  later,  Mrs.  Strong  came  up 
Phillip  told  her  exactly  how  he  had  decided. 

"  I  cannot  leave  these  poor  fellows  in  the  tene- 
ments yet ;  my  work  is  just  beginning  to  count 
with  them.  And  the  church,  oh,  Sarah,  I  love  it, 
for  it  has  such  possibilities  and  it  must  yield  in 
time ;  and  then  the  whiskey  men,  —  I  cannot  bear 
to  have  them  think  me  beaten,  driven  out,  defeated. 
And  in  addition  to  all  the  rest  I  have  a  feeling  that 
God  has  a  wonderful  blessing  in  store  for  me  and 
the  church  very  soon ;  and  I  cannot  banish  the 
feeling  that  if  I  should  accept  the  call  to  Fairview  I 
should  always  be  haunted  by  that  ghost  of  Duty 
murdered  and  run  away  from  which  would  make 
me  unhappy  in  all  my  future  work.  Dear  little 
woman,"  Phillip  went  on,  as  he  drew  his  wife's 
head  down  and  kissed  her  tenderly,  while  tears  of 
disappointment  fell  from  her,  —  "  little  woman, 
you  know  you  are  the  dearest  of  all  earthly  beings 
to  me.  And  my  soul  tells  me  the  reason  you  loved 
me  enough  to  share  earth's  troubles  with  me  was 
that  you  knew  I  could  not  be  a  coward  in  the  face  of 
my  duty,  my  conscience,  and  my  God.  Is  it  not  so?  " 

The  answer  came  in  a  sob  of  mingled  anguish 
and  happiness  :  — 

"  Yes,  Phillip,  but  it  was  only  for  3'our  sake  I 


202       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

wanted  you  to  leave  this  work.  It  is  killing  you. 
Yet "  (and  she  lifted  her  head  with  a  smile 
through  all  the  tears),  —  "  yet,  Phillip  "  (she  quoted 
from  Ruth's  words  to  Naomi),  "  '  whither  thou  goest 
I  will  go,  and  where  thou  lodgest  I  will  lodge ;  thy 
people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my  God. 
Where  thou  diest  will  I  die,  and  there  will  I  be 
buried ;  the  Lord  do  so  to  me  and  more  also  if 
aught  but  death  part  thee  and  me.'  " 

There  were  people  in  Milton  who  could  not 
understand  how  a  person  of  such  refined  and  even 
naturally  expensive  and  luxurious  habits  as  the 
minister's  wife  possessed  could  endure  the  life  he 
had  planned  for  himself,  and  his  idea  of  Christian 
living  in  general.  Phillip  could  have  told  them  if 
he  had  been  so  minded.  And  this  scene  could 
have  revealed  it  to  any  one  who  knew  the  minister 
and  his  wife  as  they  really  were.  That  was  a  sacred 
scene  to  husband  and  wife,  something  that  belonged 
to  them,  one  of  those  things  which  the  world  did 
not  know  and  had  no  business  to  know. 

When  the  first  Sunday  of  another  month  had 
come  Phillip  felt  quite  well  again.  A  rumor  of  his 
call  to  Fairview  had  gone  out,  and  to  the  few  intimate 
friends  who  asked  him  about  it  he  did  not  deny,  but 
he  said  little.  The  time  was  precious  to  him.  He 
plunged  into  the  work  with  an  enthusiasm  and  a  pur- 
pose which  sprang  from  his  knowledge  that  he  was  at 
last  gaining  some  influence  in  the  tenement  district. 

The  condition  of  affairs  in  that  neighborhood  was 
growing  worse  instead  of  better.  The  amount  of 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      203 

vice  and  drunkenness  and  crime  and  brutality  made 
Phillip's  sensitive  heart  quiver  a  hundred  times  a 
day  as  he  went  his  way  through  it  all.  His  study 
of  the  whole  question  led  him  to  the  conviction 
that  one  of  the  great  needs  of  the  place  was  a  new 
home  life  for  the  people.  The  tenements  were 
owned  and  rented  by  men  of  wealth  and  influence. 
Many  of  these  men  were  in  the  church.  Discour- 
aged as  he  had  so  far  been  in  his  endeavor  to  get 
the  moneyed  men  of  the  congregation  to  consecrate 
their  property  to  Christian  uses,  Phillip  came  up  to 
that  first  Sunday  with  a  new  phase  of  the  same 
great  subject  which  pressed  so  hard  for  utterance 
that  he  could  not  keep  it  back. 

As  he  faced  the  church  this  morning  he  faced  an 
audience  composed  of  very  conflicting  elements. 
Representatives  of  labor  were  conspicuous  in  the 
galleries.  People  whom  Phillip  had  assisted  at  one 
time  and  another  were  scattered  about  through  the 
house,  mostly  in  the  back  seats  under  the  choir 
gallery.  His  own  membership  was  represented  by 
men  who,  while  opposed  to  his  idea  of  the  Christian 
life  and  his  interpretation  of  Christ,  nevertheless  con- 
tinued to  go  and  hear  him  preach.  The  incident  of 
the  sexton's  application  for  membership  and  his  re- 
jection by  vote  had  also  told  somewhat  in  favor  of 
Phillip.  Very  many  preachers  would  have  resigned 
after  such  a  scene.  Phillip  had  said  his  say  about 
it,  and  then  refused  to  speak  or  be  interviewed  by 
the  papers  on  the  subject.  But  this  morning  as  he 
rose  to  give  his  message  in  the  person  of  Christ,  the 


204       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

thought  of  the  continued  suffering  and  shame  and 
degradation  in  the  tenement  district,  the  thought  of 
the  great  wealth  in  the  possession  of  the  church 
which  might  be  used  to  transform  the  lives  of  thou- 
sands of  people,  if  the  men  of  riches  in  Calvary 
Church  would  only  see  the  kingdom  of  God  in  its 
demands  on  them,  —  this  voiced  Phillip's  cry  to  the 
people,  and  gave  his  sermon  the  significance  and 
solemnity  of  a  prophet's  inspiration. 

"  See  !  "  he  exclaimed,  as  he  went  on  after  draw- 
ing a  vivid  picture  of  the  miserable  condition  of  life 
in  the  buildings  which  could  not  be  called  homes, 
"  see  what  a  change  could  be  made  by  the  use  of  a 
few  thousand  dollars  down  there.  And  here  this 
morning  in  this  house  men  are  sitting  who  own  very 
many  of  those  tenements,  who  are  getting  the  rent 
from  them  every  month,  who  could,  without  depriv- 
ing themselves  of  one  necessity  or  even  luxury  of 
life,  so  change  the  surroundings  of  these  people  that 
they  would  enjoy  the  physical  life  God  has  given 
them,  and  be  able  to  see  his  love  in  the  lives  of  his 
disciples.  O  my  brethren,  is  not  this  your  oppor- 
tunity? What  is  money  compared  with  humanity? 
What  is  the  meaning  of  our  discipleship  unless  we 
are  using  what  God  has  given  us  to  build  up  his 
kingdom  ?  The  money  represented  by  this  church 
could  rebuild  the  entire  tenement  district.  The 
men  who  own  these  buildings,"  Phillip  paused  as 
if  he  had  suddenly  become  aware  that  he  might  be 
saying  an  unwise  thing  ;  then  after  a  brief  hesitation, 
as  if  he  had  satisfied  his  own  doubt,  he  repeated, 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      205 

"  The  men  who  own  these  tenements  (and  members 
of  other  churches  are  among  the  owners)  are  guilty 
in  the  sight  of  God  for  allowing  human  beings  in  his 
image  to  grow  up  in  such  horrible  surroundings 
when  it  is  in  the  power  of  money  to  stop  it.  There- 
fore they  shall  receive  greater  condemnation  at  the 
last,  when  Christ  sits  on  the  throne  of  the  universe 
to  judge  the  world.  For  will  he  not  say,  as  he  said 
long  years  ago,  '  I  was  hungry  and  ye  gave  me  no 
meat,  naked  and  ye  clothed  me  not,  sick  and  in 
miserable  dwellings  reeking  with  filth  and  disease, 
and  ye  drew  the  hire  of  these  places  and  visited  me 
not '  ?  For  are  these  men  and  women  and  children 
not  our  brethren  ?  Verily,  God  will  require  it  at  our 
hands,  O  men  of  Milton,  if,  having  the  power  to 
use  God's  property  so  as  to  make  the  world  happier 
and  better,  we  refused  to  do  so  and  went  our  ways 
careless  of  our  own  responsibility,  and  selfish  in  our 
use  of  God's  money." 

Phillip  closed  his  sermon  with  an  account  of  facts 
concerning  the  condition  of  some  of  the  people  he 
himself  had  visited.  When  the  service  closed,  more 
than  one  property  owner  went  away  secretly  enraged 
at  Phillip's  bold,  and  as  most  of  them  said  and 
thought,  'impertinent  meddling  in  their  business.' 
Was  Phillip  wise  ?  And  yet  he  had  gone  to  more 
than  one  of  these  men  in  private  with  the  same 
message.  Had  he  not  the  right  to  speak  in  public  ? 
Did  not  Christ  do  so?  Would  he  not  do  so  if  he 
were  here  on  earth  again  ?  And  Phillip,  seeing  the 
great  need,  seeing  the  mighty  power  of  money, 


206       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

seeing  the  indifference  of  these  men  to  the  whole 
matter,  seeing  their  determination  to  conduct  their 
business  for  the  gain  of  it  without  regard  to  the 
condition  of  life,  —  Phillip,  with  his  heart  sore  and 
his  soul  indignant  at  the  suffering  he  had  witnessed, 
came  into  the  church  and  flung  his  sword  of  wrath 
out  of  its  scabbard,  smiting  at  the  very  thing  dearest 
of  all  things  to  thousands  of  church-members  to-day, 
—  the  money,  the  property,  the  lust  of  acquisition ; 
and  he  smote  perhaps  with  a  somewhat  unwise 
energy  of  denunciation,  yet  with  his  heart  crying 
out  for  wisdom  with  every  blow  he  struck,  "  Would 
Christ  say  it?  Would  he  say  it?"  And  his  sen- 
sitive, keenly  sensitive  spirit  heard  the  answer,  "  Yes, 
I  believe  he  would."  Back  of  that  answer  Phillip 
did  not  go  in  those  days  so  rapidly  drawing  to  their 
tremendous  close.  He  bowed  the  soul  of  him  to 
his  Master  and  said,  "Thy  will  be  done  !  " 

The  week  following  this  Sunday  was  one  of  the 
busiest  Phillip  had  known.  With  the  approach  of 
warmer  weather,  a  great  deal  of  sickness  came 
on.  He  was  going  early  and  late  on  errands 
of  mercy  to  the  poor  souls  all  about  his  own  house. 
The  people  knew  him  now  and  loved  him.  He 
comforted  his  spirit  with  that  knowledge  as  he 
prayed  and  worked. 

He  was  going  through  one  of  the  narrow  courts 
one  night  on  his  way  home,  with  his  head  bent 
down  and  his  thoughts  on  some  scene  of  suffering, 
when  he  was  suddenly  confronted  by  a  man  who 
stepped  quickly  out  from  a  shadowed  corner,  threw 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      207 

one  arm  about  Phillip's  neck  and  placed  his  other 
hand  over  his  mouth  and  attempted  to  throw  him 
over  backward. 

It  was  very  late,  and  no  one  was  in  sight.  Phillip 
said  to  himself,  "  This  is  the  attack  of  which  I  was 
warned."  He  was  taken  altogether  by  surprise,  but 
being  active  and  self-possessed,  he  sharply  threw 
himself  forward,  repelling  his  assailant's  attack,  and 
succeeded  in  pulling  the  man's  hand  away  from 
his  mouth.  His  first  instinct  was  to  cry  out  for 
help ;  his  next  was  to  keep  still.  He  suddenly 
felt  the  other  giving  way.  The  assailant's  strength 
seemed  to  be  leaving  him.  Phillip,  calling  up  some 
of  his  knowledge  of  wrestling  gained  while  in 
college,  threw  his  entire  weight  upon  him,  and  to 
his  surprise  the  man  offered  no  resistance.  They 
both  fell  heavily  upon  the  ground,  the  stranger 
underneath.  He  had  not  spoken  and  no  one  had 
yet  appeared.  As  the  man  lay  there  motionless, 
Phillip  rose  and  stood  over  him.  By  the  dim  light 
that  partly  illuminated  the  court  from  a  street  lamp 
farther  on,  Phillip  saw  that  his  assailant  was  stunned. 
There  was  a  pump  not  far  away.  Phillip  went  over 
and  brought  some  water.  After  a  few  moments 
the  man  recovered  consciousness.  He  sat  up  and 
looked  about  in  a  confused  manner.  Phillip  stood 
near  by,  looking  at  him  thoughtfully. 


CHAPTER  X. 

AS  the  man  looked  up  at  Phillip  in  a  dazed  con- 
dition, Phillip  said  slowly  :  — 

"  You  're  not  hurt  badly,  I  hope.  Why  did  you 
attack  me?" 

The  man  seemed  too  bewildered  to  answer. 
Phillip  leaned  over  and  put  one  arm  about  him  to 
help  him  to  rise.  He  struggled  to  his  feet,  but 
almost  instantly  sat  down  on  the  curb  at  the  side  of 
the  road,  holding  his  head  between  his  hands.  For 
a  moment  Phillip  hesitated.  Then  he  sat  down 
beside  the  man,  and  after  finding  out  that  he  was  not 
seriously  hurt  succeeded  in  drawing  him  into  a  con- 
versation which  grew  more  and  more  remarkable  as 
it  went  on.  As  he  recalled  it  afterward,  Phillip  was 
unable  to  account  exactly  for  the  way  in  which  the 
confidence  between  him  and  his  assailant  had  been 
brought  about.  The  incident  and  all  that  followed 
from  it  has  such  a  bearing  on  the  crucifixion  that  it 
belongs  to  the  whole  story. 

"  Then  you  say,"  went  on  Phillip  after  they  had 
been  talking  in  brief  question  and  answer  for  a  few 
minutes,  "  you  say  that  you  meant  to  rob  me,  taking 
me  for  another  man?  " 

"Yes,  I  thought  you  was  the  mill- man,  —  what  is 
his  name  ?  —  Winter." 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       209 

"Why  did  you  want  to  rob  him?"  Phillip  asked, 
not  knowing  just  what  to  say. 

The  man  replied,  harshly,  almost  savagely,  "  Be- 
cause he  has  money  and  I  was  hungry." 

"  How  long  have  you  been  hungry?" 

"  I  have  not  had  anything  to  eat  for  almost  three 
days." 

"  There  is  food  to  be  had  at  the  Poor  Commis- 
sioners. Did  you  know  that  fact  ?  " 

The  man  did  not  answer,  and  Phillip  asked  him 
again.  The  reply  came  in  a  tone  of  bitter  emphasis 
that  made  the  minister  start :  — 

"  Yes,  I  knew  it !  I  would  starve  before  I  would 
go  to  the  Poor  Commissioners  for  food." 

"  Or  steal  ?  "  asked  Phillip,  gently. 

"  Yes,  or  steal.     Would  n't  you?  " 

Phillip  stared  out  into  the  darkness  of  the  court 
and  answered  honestly:  "I  don't  know." 

There  was  a  short  pause.     Then  Phillip  asked  : 

"  Can't  you  get  work?  " 

It  was  a  hopeless  question  to  put  to  a  man  in  a 
town  of  over  two  thousand  idle  men.  The  answer 
was  what  Phillip  knew  it  would  be  :  — 

"  Work  !  Can  I  pick  up  a  bushel  of  gold  in  the 
street  out  there  ?  Can  a  man  get  work  where  there 
ain't  any?  " 

"  What  have  you  been  doing?  " 

"  I  was  fireman  in  the  Lake  Mills.  Good  job. 
Lost  it  when  they  closed  down  last  winter." 

"  What  have  you  been  doing  since  ?  " 

"  Anything  I  could  get." 
H 


210       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"Are  you  a  married  man? " 

The  question  affected  the  other  strangely.  He 
trembled  all  over,  put  his  head  between  his  knees, 
and  out  of  his  heart's  anguish  flowed  the  words,  "  I 
had  a  wife.  She  's  dead,  —  of  consumption.  I  had 
a  little  girl.  She  's  dead  too.  Thank  God  !  "  ex- 
claimed the  man,  with  a  change  from  a  sob  to  a 
curse.  "  Thank  God  !  —  and  curses  on  all  rich 
men  who  had  it  in  their  power  to  prevent  the  hell 
other  people  feel  on  earth,  and  which  they  will  feel 
for  themselves  in  the  other  world  !  " 

Phillip  did  not  say  anything  for  some  time. 
What  could  any  man  say  to  another  at  once  under 
such  circumstances  ?  Finally  he  said  :  — 

"  What  will  you  do  with  money  if  I  give  you 
some?  " 

"  I  don't  want  your  money,"  replied  the  man 

"  I  thought  you  did  a  little  while  ago,"  said 
Phillip,  simply. 

"  It  was  the  mill- owner's  money  I  wanted. 
You  're  the  preacher,  are  n't  you,  up  at  Calvary 
Church?" 

"  Yes.     How  did  you  know?  " 

"  I  've  seen  you.  Heard  you  preach  once.  I 
never  thought  I  should  come  to  this,  —  holding  up 
a  preacher  down  here  !  "  And  the  man  laughed  a 
hard,  short  laugh. 

"  Then  you  're  not  —  "  Phillip  hardly  knew  how 
to  say  it.  He  wanted  to  say  that  the  man  was  not 
connected  in  any  way  with  the  saloon  element ; 
"  you  're  driven  to  this  desperate  course  on  your 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP   STRONG.      211 

own  account  ?  The  reason  I  ask  is  that  I  have  been 
threatened  by  the  whiskey  men  and  at  first  I  sup- 
posed you  were  one  of  them." 

"  No,  sir,"  was  the  answer,  almost  in  disgust.  "  I 
may  be  pretty  bad,  sir,  yet  not  so  low  as  that." 

"Then  your  only  motive  was  hunger?  " 

"That  was  all.     Enough,  ain't  it?  " 

"  We  can't  discuss  the  matter  here,"  said  Phillip. 
He  hesitated,  rose,  and  stood  there  looking  at  the 
man  who  sat  now  with  his  head  resting  in  his  arms, 
which  were  folded  across  his  knees.  Two  or  three 
persons  came  out  of  a  street  near  by  and  walked 
past.  Phillip  knew  them  and  said  good-evening. 
They  thought  he  was  helping  some  drunken  man,  a 
thing  Phillip  had  often  done,  and  they  went  along 
without  stopping.  Again  the  street  was  deserted. 

"What will  you  do  now?"  asked  Phillip.  "Where 
will  you  go  ?  " 

"  God  knows.     I  am  an  outcast  on  his  earth  !  " 

" Have  you  no  home? " 

"  Home  !  Yes ;  the  gutter,  the  street,  the  bot- 
tom of  the  river." 

"  My  brother !  "  Phillip  laid  his  hand  on  the 
man's  shoulder,  "  come  home  with  me,  have  some- 
thing to  eat,  and  stay  with  me  awhile." 

The  man  looked  up  and  stared  at  Phillip  through 
the  semi-darkness. 

"  What,  go  home  with  you  !  That  would  be  a 
good  one  after  trying  to  hold  you  up  !  I  '11  tell  you 
what  you  ought  to  do.  Take  me  to  the  police 
station  and  have  me  arrested  for  attempt  at  highway 


212      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

robbery.  Then  I  'd  get  lodgings  and  victuals  for 
nothing." 

Phillip  smiled  slightly.  "That  would  not  help 
matters  any.  And  if  you  know  me  at  all  you  know 
I  would  never  do  any  such  thing.  Come  home  with 
me.  No  one  except  you  and  myself  need  ever 
know  what  has  happened  to-night.  I  have  food  at 
my  home,  and  you  are  hungry.  We  both  belong  to 
the  same  Father-God.  Why  should  I  not  help  you 
if  I  want  to?" 

It  was  all  said  so  calmly,  so  lovingly,  so  honestly 
that  the  man  softened  under  it.  A  tear  rolled  over 
his  cheek.  He  brushed  his  hand  over  his  eyes. 
It  was  a  long  time  since  any  one  had  called  him 
"  brother." 

"  Come  !  "  Phillip  reached  out  his  hand  and 
helped  him  to  rise.  The  man  staggered,  and  might 
have  fallen  if  Phillip  had  not  supported  him.  "  I 
am  faint  and  dizzy,"  he  said. 

"  Courage  now  !  My  home  is  not  far  off;  we 
shall  soon  be  there,"  said  Phillip,  cheerfully.  His 
companion  was  silent.  As  they  came  up  to  the 
door  Phillip  said,  "  I  have  n't  asked  your  name,  but 
it  might  save  a  little  awkwardness  if  I  knew  it." 

"  William —  "  Phillip  did  not  hear  the  last  name, 
it  was  spoken  in  such  a  low  voice. 

"  Never  mind ;  we  '11  call  you  William  if  it 's  all 
the  same  to  you."  And  Phillip  went  into  the  house 
with  the  man,  and  at  once  made  him  feel  at  home 
by  means  of  that  simple  and  yet  powerful  spirit  of 
brotherhood  which  was  ready  to  level  all  false  dis- 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      213 

tinctions,  and  which  possibly  saw  in  prophetic  vision 
the  coming  event  in  his  own  career  when  all  dis- 
tinctions of  title  and  name  would  be  as  worthless  as 
dust  in  the  scales  of  eternity. 

Mrs.  Strong  at  once  set  food  upon  the  table,  and 
then  she  and  Phillip  with  tme  delicacy  busied  them- 
selves in  another  room  so  as  not  to  watch  the  man 
while  he  ate.  When  he  had  satisfied  his  hunger 
Phillip  showed  him  the  little  room  where  the 
Brother  Man  had  stayed  one  night. 

"  You  may  make  it  your  own  as  long  as  you  will," 
Phillip  said.  "  You  may  look  upon  it  as  simply  a 
part  of  what  has  been  given  us  to  be  used  for 
the  Father's  children." 

The  man  seemed  dazed  by  the  result  of  his 
encounter  with  the  preacher.  He  murmured  some- 
thing about  thanks.  He  was  evidently  very  much 
worn,  and  the  excitement  of  the  evening  had  given 
place  to  an  appearance  of  dejection  that  alarmed 
Phillip.  After  a  few  words  he  went  out  and  left 
the  man,  who  said  that  he  felt  very  drowsy. 

"  I  believe  he  is  going  to  have  a  fever  or  some- 
thing," Phillip  said  to  his  wife  as  he  joined  her 
in  the  other  room.  He  related  his  meeting  with 
the  man,  making  very  light  of  his  attack  and 
indeed  excusing  it  on  the  ground  of  his  desperate 
condition. 

"  What  shall  we  do  with  him,  Phillip?  " 

"  We  must  keep  him  here  until  he  finds  work. 
I  believe  this  is  one  of  the  cases  that  call  for 
personal  care.  We  cannot  send  him  away;  the 


214      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

man's  entire  future  depends  on  our  treatment  of 
him.  But  I  don't  like  his  looks ;  I  fear  he  is  going 
to  be  a  sick  man." 

Phillip's  fear  was  realized.  The  next  morning 
he  found  his  lodger  in  the  clutch  of  a  fever. 
Before  night  he  was  delirious.  And  Phillip,  with 
the  burden  of  his  work  weighing  heavier  on  him 
every  moment,  took  up  this  additional  load  and 
prayed  his  Lord  to  give  him  strength  to  carry  it 
and  save  another  soul. 

It  was  at  the  time  of  this  event  in  Phillip's  life 
that  another  occurred  which  had  its  special  bear- 
ing upon  the  crisis  of  all  his  life. 

The  church  was  dear  to  his  thought,  loved  by 
him  with  a  love  that  only  very  few  of  the  members 
understood.  In  spite  of  his  apparent  failure  to 
rouse  the  church  to  a  conception  of  her  duty  as  he 
saw  it,  Phillip  was  confident  that  the  spirit  of  God 
would  accomplish  the  miracle  which  he  could  not 
do.  Then  there  were  those  in  Calvary  Church 
who  sympathized  heartily  with  him  and  were  ready 
to  follow  his  leadership.  He  was  not  without 
fellowship,  and  it  gave  him  courage.  Add  to  that  the 
knowledge  that  he  had  gained  a  place  in  the  affection 
of  the  working-people,  and  that  was  another  reason 
why  Phillip  kept  up  good  heart  and  did  not  let  his 
personal  sensitiveness  enter  too  largely  into  his 
work.  It  was  of  course  impossible  for  him  to  hide 
from  himself  the  fact  that  very  many  members  of 
the  church  had  been  offended  by  much  that  he  had 
said  and  done.  But  he  was  the  last  man  in  the 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      215 

world  to  go  about  his  parish  trying  to  find  out  the 
quantity  of  opposition  that  existed.  His  Sunday 
congregation  crowded  the  church.  He  was  popular 
with  the  masses.  Whenever  he  lectured  among 
the  working-men  the  hall  was  filled  to  overflowing. 
He  could  not  acknowledge  even  to  himself  that  the 
church  could  long  withstand  the  needs  of  the  age 
and  the  place.  He  had  an  intense  faith  in  it  as  an 
institution.  He  firmly  believed  all  it  needed  was  to 
have  the  white  light  of  truth  poured  continually  on 
the  Christ  as  he  would  act  to-day,  and  the  church 
would  respond,  and  at  last  in  a  mighty  tide  of  love 
and  self-sacrifice  throw  itself  into  the  work  the  church 
was  made  to  do. 

So  he  began  to  plan  for  a  series  of  Sunday-night 
services  different  from  anything  Milton  had  ever 
known.  Phillip's  life  in  the  tenement  district 
and  his  growing  knowledge  of  the  labor  world  had 
convinced  him  of  the  fact  that  the  church  was 
missing  its  opportunity  in  not  grappling  with  the 
problem  as  it  existed  in  Milton.  It  seemed  to  him 
that  the  first  step  to  a  successful  solution  of  that 
problem  as  far  as  the  church  was  concerned  was  for 
the  church  and  the  working-man  to  get  together 
on  some  common  platform  for  a  better  mutual 
understanding.  He  accordingly  planned  for  a  series 
of  Sunday-night  services,  in  which  his  one  great  pur- 
pose was  to  unite  the  church  and  the  labor  unions 
in  a  scheme  of  mutual  helpfulness.  His  plan  was 
very  simple.  He  invited  into  the  meeting  one  or 
two  thoughtful  leaders  of  the  mill-men  and  asked 


2l6      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP   STRONG. 

them  to  state  in  the  plainest  terms  the  exact  con- 
dition of  affairs  in  the  labor  world  from  their  stand- 
point. Then  Phillip,  for  the  church,  took  up  their 
statements,  their  complaints,  or  the  reasons  for 
their  differences  with  capital,  and  answered  them 
from  the  Christian  standpoint :  What  would  Christ 
advise  under  these  circumstances?  He  had  differ- 
ent subjects  presented  on  different  evenings.  One 
night  it  was  reasons  why  the  mill-men  were  not 
in  the  church.  Another  night  it  was  the  demand 
of  men  for  better  houses,  and  how  to  get  them. 
Another  night  it  was  the  subject  of  strikes  and 
the  attitude  of  Christ  on  wages  and  the  relative 
value  of  the  wage-earners'  product  and  the  capital- 
ists' intelligence.  At  each  meeting  Phillip  allowed 
one  or  two  of  the  invited  leaders  to  take  the  plat- 
form and  say  very  plainly  what  to  his  mind  was 
the  cause  and  what  the  remedy  for  the  poverty  and 
crime  and  suffering  of  the  world.  Then  he  closed 
the  evening's  discussion  by  a  calm,  clear  statement 
of  what  was  to  him  the  direct  application  of  Jesus' 
teaching  to  the  point  at  issue. 

Finally,  as  this  series  drew  to  a  close  at  the  end 
of  the  month,  a  subject  came  up  which  roused  in- 
tense feeling.  It  was  the  subject  of  wealth,  its 
power,  responsibility,  meaning,  and  Christian  use. 
The  church  was  jammed  in  every  part  of  it.  The 
services  had  been  so  unusual,  the  conduct  of  them 
had  so  often  been  intensely  practical,  the  points 
made  had  so  often  told  against  the  existing  Church 
that  great  mobs  of  mill-men  filed  into  the  room  and 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.       217 

for  the  time  being  took  possession  of  Calvary 
Church.  For  the  four  Sunday  nights  of  that  series 
Phillip  faced  great  crowds,  mostly  of  grown-up  men, 
crowds  that  his  soul  yearned  over  with  unspeakable 
emotion,  wonderful  audiences  for  Calvary  to  wit- 
ness, the  like  of  which  Milton  had  never  seen. 

We  cannot  do  better  than  give  the  evening 
paper's  account  of  this  last  service  in  the  series. 
With  one  or  two  slight  exaggerations  the  account 
was  a  faithful  picture  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
meetings  ever  held  in  Milton.  The  paper,  after 
speaking  of  the  series  as  a  sensational  departure 
from  the  old  church  methods,  went  on  to  say: 

"  It  will  be  safe  to  say  that  those  who  were  fortu- 
nate enough  to  secure  standing-room  in  Rev.  Mr. 
Strong's  church  last  night  heard  and  saw  things  that 
no  other  church  in  this  town  ever  witnessed. 

"  In  the  first  place,  it  was  a  most  astonishing 
crowd  of  people.  Several  of  the  church-members 
were  present,  but  they  were  in  the  minority.  The 
mill-men  swarmed  in  and  took  possession.  It  is 
not  exactly  correct  to  say  that  they  lounged  on  the 
easy-cushioned  pews  of  the  Calvary  Church,  for  there 
was  not  room  enough  to  lounge,  but  they  filled  up 
the  sanctuary  and  seemed  to  enjoy  the  comfort  and 
luxury  of  it. 

"  The  subject  of  the  evening  was  Wealth,  and  the 
President  of  the  Trades  Assembly  of  Milton  made  a 
statement  of  the  view  which  working-men  in  general 
have  of  wealth  as  related  to  labor  of  hand  or  brain. 
He  stated  what  to  his  mind  was  the  reason  for  the 


2l8      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

discontent  of  so  many  at  the  sight  of  great  numbers 
of  rich  men  in  times  of  suffering,  or  sickness,  or 
lack  of  work.  '  Why,  just  look  at  the  condition  of 
things  here  and  in  every  large  place  all  over  the 
world,'  he  said.  Men  are  suffering  for  the  lack  of 
common  necessaries  while  men  of  means  with 
money  in  the  bank  continue  to  live  just  as  luxu- 
riously and  spend  just  as  much  as  they  ever  did  for 
things  not  needful  for  happiness.  It  was  in  the 
power  of  the  men  of  wealth  in  Milton  to  prevent 
most  if  not  all  of  the  suffering  here  this  last  winter 
and  spring.  It  was  in  their  power  to  see  that  the 
tenements  were  better  built  and  arranged  for  health 
and  decency.  It  was  in  their  power  to  do  a  thou- 
sand things  that  money  and  money  alone  can  do, 
and  I  believe  they  will  be  held  to  account  for  not 
doing  some  of  those  things  ! ' 

"  At  this  point  some  one  in  the  gallery  shouted 
out,  *  Hang  the  aristocrats  ! '  Instantly  Rev.  Mr. 
Strong  rose  and  stepped  to  the  front  of  the  platform. 
Raising  his  long,  sinewy  arm  and  stretching  out  his 
open  hand  in  appeal,  he  said,  while  the  great  au- 
dience was  perfectly  quiet,  'I  will  not  allow  any 
such  disturbance  at  this  meeting.  We  are  here,  not 
to  denounce  people,  but  to  find  the  truth.  Let 
every  fair-minded  man  bear  that  in  mind.' 

"The  preacher  sat  down,  and  the  audience 
cheered.  Then  before  the  President  of  the  Assem- 
bly could  go  on,  a  man  rose  in  the  body  of  the 
house  and  asked  if  he  might  say  a  word. 

"  Mr.  Strong  said  he  might  if  he  would  be  brief. 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      219 

The  man  then  proceeded  to  give  a  list  of  people 
who,  he  said,  were  becoming  criminals  because  they 
could  n't  get  work.  After  he  had  spoken  a  minute 
Rev.  Mr.  Strong  asked  him  to  come  to  the  point  and 
show  what  bearing  his  facts  had  on  the  subject  of 
the  evening.  The  man  seemed  to  become  confused, 
and  finally  his  friends  or  the  people  near  him  pulled 
him  down,  and  the  President  of  the  Trades  Assem- 
bly resumed  the  discussion,  closing  with  the  state- 
ment that  never  in  the  history  of  the  country  had 
there  been  so  much  money  in  the  banks  and  so 
little  of  it  in  the  pockets  of  the  people  ;  and  when  that 
was  a  fact  something  was  wrong ;  and  it  was  for  the 
men  who  owned  the  money  to  right  that  wrong,  for 
it  lay  in  their  power,  not  with  the  poor  man. 

"  He  was  followed  by  a  very  clear  and  intensely 
interesting  talk  by  Rev.  Mr.  Strong  on  the  Christian 
teaching  concerning  the  wealth  of  the  world.  Sev- 
eral times  he  was  interrupted  by  applause,  once  with 
hisses,  several  times  with  questions.  He  was  hissed 
when  he  spoke  of  the  great  selfishness  of  the  labor 
unions  and  trades  organizations  in  their  attempts  to 
dictate  toother  men  in  the  matter  of  work.  With 
this  one  exception,  in  which  the  reverend  gentleman 
spoke  with  his  usual  frankness,  the  audience  cheered 
his  presentation  of  the  subject,  and  was  evidently 
in  perfect  sympathy  with  his  views.  Short  extracts 
from  his  talk  will  show  the  drift  of  his  entire  belief 
on  this  subject :  — 

"  '  Every  dollar  that  a  man  earns  should  be  spent 
to  the  glory  of  God. 


220       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  'The  teaching  of  Christianity  about  wealth  is  the 
same  as  about  anything  else  ;  it  all  belongs  to  God, 
and  should  be  used  by  the  man  as  God  would  use 
it  in  the  man's  place. 

"  '  It  is  a  great  mistake  which  many  people  make, 
church-members  among  the  rest,  that  the  money 
they  get  is  their  own  to  do  with  as  they  please. 
Men  have  no  right  to  use  anything  as  they  please 
unless  God  pleases  so  too. 

"'The  accumulation  of  vast  sums  of  money  by 
individuals  or  classes  of  men  has  always  been  a  bad 
thing  for  society.  A  few  very  rich  men  and  a  great 
number  of  very  poor  men  is  what  gave  the  world 
the  French  Revolution  and  the  guillotine. 

" '  There  are  certain  conditions  true  of  society  at 
certain  times  when  it  is  the  Christian  duty  of  the 
rich  to  use  every  cent  they  possess  to  relieve  the 
need  of  society.  Such  a  condition  faces  us  to- 
day. 

" '  The  foolish  and  unnecessary  expenditure  of 
society  on  its  trivial  pleasures  at  a  time  when  men 
and  women  are  out  of  work  and  children  are  cry- 
ing for  food  is  a  cruel  and  unchristian  waste  of 
opportunity. 

"  '  If  Christ  were  here  to-day  I  believe  he  would 
tell  the  rich  men  of  Milton  that  every  cent  they 
have  belongs  to  Almighty  God,  and  they  are  only 
trustees  of  his  property. 

" '  This  is  the  only  true  use  of  wealth :  that  the 
man  who  has  it  recognize  its  power  and  privilege  to 
make  others  happy,  not  provide  himself  luxury. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG,      221 

"'The  church  that  thinks  more  of  fine  architecture 
and  paid  choirs  than  of  opening  its  doors  to  the 
people  that  they  may  hear  the  gospel,  is  a  church 
that  is  mortgaged  for  all  it  is  worth  to  the  devil, 
who  will  foreclose  at  the  first  opportunity. 

"  '  The  first  duty  of  every  man  who  has  money  is 
to  ask  himself,  What  would  Christ  have  me  do  with 
it?  The  second  duty  is  to  go  and  do  it,  after  hear- 
ing the  answer. 

"  '  If  the  money  owned  by  church-members  were 
all  spent  to  the  glory  of  God  there  would  be  fewer 
hundred-thousand-dollar  churches  built  and  more 
model  tenements. 

" '  If  Christ  had  been  a  millionnaire  he  would  have 
used  his  money  to  build  up  character  in  other 
people,  rather  than  build  a  magnificent  brown-stone 
palace  for  himself.  But  we  cannot  imagine  Christ 
as  a  millionnaire. 

" '  It  is  just  as  true  now  as  when  Paul  said  it  nearly 
twenty  centuries  ago  :  "  The  love  of  money  is  a  root 
of  all  kinds  of  evil ;  "  it  is  the  curse  of  our  civiliza- 
tion, the  greatest  passion  of  the  human  race  to-day. 

"  '  Our  civilization  is  only  partly  Christian.  For 
Christian  civilization  means  more  comforts;  ours 
means  more  wants. 

"'If  a  man's  pocket-book  is  not  converted  with 
his  soul  the  man  will  not  get  into  heaven  on  it. 

" '  There  are  certain  things  that  money  alone  can 
secure ;  but  among  those  things  it  cannot  buy  is 
character. 

"  '  All  wealth,  from  the  Christian  standpoint,  is  in 


222       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

the  nature  of  trust  funds,  to  be  so  used  by  the  admin- 
istrator as  God,  the  owner,  shall  direct.  No  man 
owns  the  money  for  himself.  The  gold  is  God's,  the 
silver  is  God's  !  That  is  the  plain  and  repeated 
teaching  of  the  Bible. 

" '  It  is  not  wrong  for  a  man  to  make  money.  It 
is  wrong  for  him  to  use  it  selfishly  or  foolishly. 

" '  If  consecrated,  the  wealth  of  the  men  of  Milton 
could  provide  work  for  every  idle  man  in  town. 
The  Christian  use  of  the  wealth  of  the  world  would 
make  impossible  the  cry  for  bread. 

" '  Most  of  the  evils  of  our  present  condition  flow 
out  of  the  love  of  money.  The  almighty  dollar  is 
the  God  of  Protestant  America. 

"  '  If  men  loved  men  as  eagerly  as  they  love  money 
the  millennium  would  be  just  around  the  corner. 

"  '  Wealth  is  a  curse  unless  the  owner  of  it  blesses 
the  world  with  it. 

"  '  "  If  any  man  hath  the  world's  goods,  and  seeth 
his  brother  have  need,  and  shutteth  up  his  compas- 
sion from  him,  how  dwelleth  the  love  of  God  in 
him?" 

"  '  Christian  Socialism  teaches  a  man  to  bear  other 
people's  burdens.  The  very  first  principle  of  Christian 
Socialism  is  unselfishness. 

"  '  We  shall  never  see  a  better  condition  of  affairs 
in  this  country  until  the  men  of  wealth  realize  their 
responsibility  and  privilege. 

" '  Christ  never  said  anything  against  the  poor 
as  a  class.  He  did  speak  some  tremendous  warnings 
in  the  face  of  the  selfish  rich. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      223 

"  '  The  only  safe  thing  for  a  man  of  wealth  to  do 
is  to  ask  himself,  What  would  Christ  do  with  my 
money  if  he  had  it  ? 

"  '  Everything  a  man  has  is  God's.  On  that  pre- 
found  principle  the  whole  of  human  life  should  rest. 
We  are  not  our  own ;  we  have  been  bought  with  a 
price.' 

"  It  would  be  impossible  to  describe  the  effect  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Strong's  talk  upon  the  audience.  Once 
the  applause  was  so  long  continued  that  it  was  a  full 
minute  before  he  could  go  on.  When  he  closed 
with  a  tremendous  appeal  to  the  wealth  of  Milton  to 
use  its  power  for  the  good  of  the  place,  for  the  tear- 
ing down  and  remodelling  of  the  tenements,  for  the 
solution  of  the  problem  of  work  for  thousands  of 
desperate  men,  the  audience  rose  to  their  feet  and 
cheered  again  and  again. 

"  At  the  close  of  the  meeting  the  minister  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  crowd  of  men,  and  an  after  meeting 
was  held,  at  which  steps  were  taken  to  form  a  com- 
mittee composed  of  prominent  church  people  and 
labor  leaders  to  work  if  possible  together  toward  a 
common  end. 

"  It  was  rumored  yesterday  that  several  of  the  lead- 
ing members  of  Calvary  Church  are  very  much  dis- 
satisfied with  the  way  things  have  been  going  during 
these  Sunday-evening  meetings,  and  are  likely  to 
withdraw  if  they  continue.  They  say  that  Mr. 
Strong's  utterances  are  socialistic  and  tend  to  in- 
flame the  minds  of  the  people  to  acts  of  violence. 
Since  the  attack  on  Mr.  Winter  nearly  every  mill- 


224      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF   PHILLIP  STRONG. 

owner  in  town  goes  armed  and  takes  extra  precau- 
tions. Mr.  Strong  was  much  pleased  with  the  result 
of  the  Sunday-night  meetings  and  said  they  had  done 
much  to  bridge  the  gulf  between  the  church  and  the 
people.  He  refused  to  credit  the  talk  about  dis- 
affection in  Calvary  Church." 

In  another  column  of  this  same  paper  were  five 
separate  accounts  of  the  desperate  condition  of 
affairs  in  the  town.  The  midnight  hold-up  attacks 
were  growing  in  frequency  and  in  boldness.  In 
addition  to  all  the  other  troubles,  the  sickness  in  the 
tenement  district  had  assumed  the  nature  of  an 
epidemic  of  fever,  clearly  caused  by  the  lack  of 
sanitary  regulations,  imperfect  drainage,  and  crowd- 
ing of  families.  Clearly  the  condition  of  matters 
was  growing  serious. 

At  this  time  the  ministers  of  different  churches  in 
Milton  held  a  meeting  to  determine  on  a  course  of 
action  that  would  relieve  some  of  the  distress. 
Various  plans  were  submitted.  Some  proposed  dis- 
tricting the  town  to  ascertain  the  number  of  needy 
families.  Others  proposed  a  union  of  benevolent 
offerings  to  be  given  the  poor.  Another  group  sug- 
gested something  else.  To  Phillip's  mind  not  one 
of  the  plans  submitted  went  to  the  root  of  the  matter. 
He  was  not  in  favor  with  the  other  ministers.  Most 
of  them  thought  he  was  sensational.  A  good  many 
were  jealous  of  his  popularity.  However,  Phillip 
made  a  plea  for  his  own  plan,  which  was  radical  and 
as  he  believed  went  to  the  real  heart  of  the  subject. 
He  proposed  that  every  church  in  town,  regardless 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      22$ 

of  its  denomination,  give  itself  in  its  pastor  and 
members  to  the  practical  solution  of  the  social 
troubles  by  personal  contact  with  the  suffering  and 
sickness  in  the  district ;  that  the  churches  all  throw 
open  their  doors  every  day  in  the  week,  week-days 
as  well  as  Sundays,  for  the  discussion  and  agitation 
of  the  whole  matter ;  that  the  county  and  the  State 
be  petitioned  to  take  speedy  action  toward  providing 
necessary  labor  for  the  unemployed;  and  that  the 
churches  cut  down  all  unnecessary  expenses  of  paid 
choirs,  abolish  pew  rents,  urge  wealthy  members  to 
consecrate  their  riches  to  the  solving  of  the  problem, 
and  in  every  way,  by  personal  sacrifice  and  common 
union,  work  and  pray  and  sacrifice  as  a  unit,  to  make 
themselves  felt  as  a  real  power  on  the  side  of  the 
people  in  their  present  great  need.  It  was  Christian 
America,  but  Phillip's  plan  was  not  adopted.  It 
was  discussed  with  some  warmth,  but  declared  to  be 
visionary,  impracticable,  unnecessary,  not  for  the 
church  to  undertake,  beyond  its  function,  etc. 
Phillip  was  disappointed,  but  he  kept  his  temper. 

"Well,  brethren,"  he  said,  "what  can  we  do  to 
help  the  solution  of  these  questions  ?  Is  the  church 
of  America  to  have  no  share  in  the  greatest  problem 
of  human  life  that  agitates  the  world  to-day?  Is  it 
not  true  that  the  people  in  this  town  regard  the 
Church  as  an  insignificant  organization  unable  to 
help  at  this  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the  people,  and 
the  preachers  as  a  lot  of  weak,  impractical  men,  with 
no  knowledge  of  the  real  state  of  affairs?  Are  we 
not  divided  over  our  denominational  differences 
15 


226      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

when  we  ought  to  be  united  in  one  common  work 
for  the  saving  of  the  whole  man?  I  have  not  any 
faith  in  the  plan  proposed  to  give  our  benevolence 
or  to  district  the  town  and  visit  the  poor.  All  those 
things  are  well  enough  in  their  place.  But  matters 
are  in  such  shape  here  now  and  all  over  the  country 
that  we  must  do  something  larger  than  that.  We 
must  do  as  Christ  would  if  he  were  here.  What 
would  he  do?  Would  he  give  anything  less  than 
his  whole  life  to  it?  Would  he  not  give  himself? 
The  Church  as  an  institution  is  facing  the  greatest 
opportunity  it  ever  saw.  If  we  do  not  seize  it  on 
the  largest  possible  scale  we  shall  miserably  fail  of 
doing  our  duty." 

When  the  meeting  adjourned  Phillip  was  aware 
he  had  simply  put  himself  out  of  touch  with  the 
majority  present.  They  did  not,  they  could  not 
look  upon  the  Church  as  he  did.  A  committee  was 
appointed  to  investigate  the  matter  and  propose  a 
plan  of  action  at  the  next  meeting  in  two  weeks. 
And  Phillip  went  home  smiling  almost  bitterly  at 
the  little  bulwark  which  Milton  churches  proposed 
to  rear  against  the  tide  of  poverty  and  crime  and 
drunkenness  and  political  chicanery  and  wealthy 
selfishness.  To  his  mind  it  was  a  house  of  paper 
cards  in  the  path  of  a  tornado. 

Saturday  night  Phillip  was  out  calling  a  little 
while,  but  he  came  home  early.  It  was  the  first 
Sunday  of  the  month  on  the  morrow,  and  he  had 
not  fully  prepared  his  sermon.  As  he  came  in,  his 
wife  met  him  with  a  look  of  news  on  her  face. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      227 

"  Guess  who  is  here  ?  "  she  said  in  a  whisper. 

"  The  Brother  Man,"  replied  Phillip,  quickly. 

"Yes,  but  you  never  can  guess  what  has  hap- 
pened. He  is  in  there  with  William.  And  the 
Brother  Man,  —  Phillip,  it  seems  like  a  chapter  out 
of  a  novel,  —  the  Brother  Man  has  discovered  that 
William  is  his  only  son,  who  cursed  his  father  and 
disowned  him  when  he  gave  away  his  property. 
They  are  in  there  together.  I  could  not  keep  the 
Brother  Man  out." 

Phillip  and  Sarah  stepped  to  the  door  of  the  little 
room,  which  was  open,  and  looked  in. 

The  Brother  Man  was  kneeling  at  the  side  of  the 
bed  praying,  and  his  son  was  listening,  with  one  hand 
tight-clasped  in  his  father's,  while  the  large  tears 
were  rolling  over  his  pale  face. 


CHAPTER  XL 

WHEN  the  Brother  Man  had  finished  his  prayer 
he  rose,  and  stooping  over  his  son  he  kissed 
him.  Then  he  turned  about  and  faced  Phillip  and 
Sarah,  who  almost  felt  guilty  of  intrusion  in  looking 
at  such  a  scene.  But  the  Brother  Man  wore  a 
radiant  look.  To  Phillip's  surprise  he  was  not 
excited.  The  same  ineffable  peace  breathed  from 
his  entire  person.  To  that  peace  was  now  added  a 
fathomless  joy. 

"Yes,"  he  said  very  simply,  "I  have  found  my 
son  which  was  lost.  God  is  good  to  me.  He  is 
good  to  all  his  children.  He  is  the  All- Father. 
He  is  Love." 

"Did  you  know  your  son  was  here?"  Phillip 
asked. 

"  No,  I  found  him  here.  You  have  saved  his  life. 
That  was  doing  as  He  would." 

"  It  was  very  little  we  could  do,"  said  Phillip,  with 
a  sigh.  He  had  seen  so  much  trouble  and  suffering 
that  day  that  his  soul  was  sick  within  him.  Yet  he 
welcomed  this  event  in  his  house.  It  seemed  a 
little  like  the  brightness  of  heaven  on  earth. 

The  sick  man  was  too  feeble  to  talk  much.  The 
tears  and  the  hand-clasp  with  his  father  told  the 
story  of  his  reconciliation,  of  the  bursting  out  of  the 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      229 

old  love,  which  had  not  been  extinguished,  only 
smothered  for  a  time.  Phillip  thought  best  for  the 
patient  that  he  should  not  become  excited  with  the 
meeting,  and  in  a  little  while  drew  the  Brother  Man 
out  into  the  other  room. 

By  this  time  it  was  nearly  ten  o'clock.  The  old 
man  stood  hesitating  in  a  curious  fashion  when 
Phillip  asked  him  to  be  seated.  And  as  before,  he 
asked  if  he  could  find  a  place  to  stay  over  night. 

"  You  have  n't  room  to  take  me  in,"  he  said 
when  Phillip  urged  his  welcome  upon  him. 

"  Oh,  yes,  we  have.  We  '11  fix  a  place  for  you 
somewhere.  Sit  right  down,  Brother  Man." 

The  old  man  at  once  accepted  Phillip's  invitation 
and  sat  down.  Not  a  trace  of  anxiety  or  hesitation 
remained.  The  peacefulness  of  his  demeanor  was 
restful  to  the  weary  Phillip. 

"  How  long  has  your  son,"  Phillip  was  going  to 
say,  "been  away  from  home?"  Then  he  thought 
it  might  offend  the  old  man,  or  that  possibly  he 
might  not  wish  to  talk  about  it.  But  he  quietly 
replied :  — 

"  I  have  not  seen  him  for  five  years.  He  was  my 
youngest  son.  We  quarrelled.  All  that  is  past. 
He  did  not  know  that  to  give  up  all  that  one  has 
is  the  will  of  God.  Now  he  knows.  When  he 
is  well  we  will  go  away  together."  The  Brother 
Man  spread  out  his  palms  in  his  favorite  gesture, 
with  plentiful  content  in  his  face  and  voice. 

Phillip  was  on  the  point  of  getting  his  strange 
guest  to  tell  something  of  his  history,  but  his  great 


230      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

weariness  and  the  knowledge  of  the  strength  needed 
for  his  Sunday  work  checked  the  questions  that 
rose  for  answer.  Mrs.  Strong  also  came  in  and 
insisted  that  Phillip  should  get  the  rest  he  so  much 
needed.  She  arranged  a  sleeping-place  on  a  lounge 
for  the  Brother  Man,  who,  after  once  more  looking 
in  upon  his  son  and  assuring  himself  that  he  was 
resting,  lay  down  with  a  look  of  great  content  upon 
his  beautiful  face. 

In  the  morning  Phillip  almost  expected  to  find 
that  his  visitor  had  mysteriously  disappeared,  as  on 
the  other  occasions.  And  he  would  not  have  been 
so  very  much  surprised  if  the  Brother  Man  had 
vanished,  taking  with  him  his  son.  But  it  was  that 
son  who  now  kept  the  Brother  Man  at  Phillip's 
house;  and  in  the  simplest  fashion  he  stayed  on, 
nursing  the  sick  man,  who  recovered  very  slowly. 
A  month  passed  by  after  the  Brother  Man  had  first 
found  the  lost  at  Phillip's  house,  and  he  was  still 
a  guest  there.  Within  that  month  great  events 
crowded  in  upon  the  experience  of  Phillip.  To  tell 
them  all  would  be  to  write  another  story.  Some- 
times in  men's  lives,  under  certain  conditions  of 
society,  or  of  men's  own  mental  and  spiritual  relation 
to  certain  courses  of  action,  time,  as  reckoned  by 
days  or  weeks,  cuts  no  figure.  A  man  can  live  an 
eternity  in  an  hour.  He  feels  it.  It  was  so  with 
Phillip.  We  have  spoken  of  the  rapidity  of  his 
thought  in  deciding  questions  of  right  or  expedi- 
ency. The  same  habit  of  mind  caused  a  possibility 
in  him  of  condensed  experience.  In  a  few  days  he 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 


231 


reached  the  conclusions  of  a  year's  thought.  That 
month,  while  the  Brother  Man  was  peacefully  watch- 
ing by  the  side  of  the  patient,  and  relieving  Mrs. 
Strong  and  a  neighbor  who  had  helped  before  he 
came,  Phillip  fought  some  tremendous  battles  with 
himself,  with  his  thought  of  the  church,  and  with  the 
world  around.  It  is  necessary  to  understand  some- 
thing of  this  in  order  to  comprehend  the  meaning 
of  his  last  Sunday  in  Milton,  —  a  Sunday  that  marked 
an  era  in  the  place,  from  which  the  people  almost 
reckoned  time  itself. 

As  spring  had  blossomed  into  summer  every  one 
had  predicted  better  times.  But  the  predictions 
did  not  bring  them.  The  suffering  and  sickness  and 
helplessness  of  the  tenement  district  grew  every  day 
more  desperate.  To  Phillip  this  district  seemed 
like  the  ulcer  of  Milton.  All  the  surface  remedies 
proposed  and  adopted  by  the  city  council  and  the 
churches  and  the  benevolent  societies  had  not 
touched  the  problem.  The  mills  were  going  on 
part  time.  Thousands  of  men  yet  lingered  in  the 
place  hoping  to  get  work.  Even  if  the  mills  had  been 
running  as  usual  that  would  not  have  diminished 
by  one  particle  the  sin  and  vice  and  drunkenness 
that  saturated  the  place.  And  as  Phillip  studied 
the  matter  with  brain  and  soul  he  came  to  a  con- 
clusion regarding  the  duty  of  the  church.  He  did 
not  pretend  to  go  beyond  that,  but  as  the  weeks 
went  by  and  autumn  came  on  and  another  winter 
stared  the  people  coldly  in  the  face,  Phillip  knew 
that  he  must  speak  out  what  burned  in  him. 


232       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

He  had  been  a  year  in  Milton  now.  Every 
month  of  that  year  had  impressed  Phillip  with  the 
width  and  apparent  hopelessness  of  the  chasm  that 
yawned  between  the  working  world  and  the  church. 
There  was  no  point  of  contact.  One  was  suspicious, 
the  other  was  indifferent.  Something  was  radically 
wrong,  and  something  radically  positive  and  Chris- 
tian must  be  done  to  right  the  condition  that  faced 
the  churches  of  Milton.  That  was  in  Phillip's  soul 
as  he  went  his  way  like  one  of  the  old  prophets, 
imbued  with  the  love  of  God  as  he  saw  it  in  the 
heart  of  Christ.  With  infinite  longing  he  yearned 
to  bring  the  church  to  a  sense  of  her  great  power 
and  opportunity.  So  matters  had  finally  drawn  to 
a  point  in  the  month  of  November.  The  Brother 
Man  had  come  in  October.  The  sick  man  recov- 
ered slowly.  Phillip  and  his  wife  found  room  for 
the  father  and  son,  and  shared  with  them  what 
comforts  they  had.  It  should  be  said  that  after 
moving  out  of  the  parsonage  into  his  home  in  the 
tenement  district,  Phillip  had  given  more  than  the 
extra  thousand  dollars  the  church  insisted  on  paying 
him.  The  demands  on  him  were  so  urgent,  the 
perfect  impossibility  of  providing  men  with  work 
and  so  relieving  them  had  been  such  a  bar  to  giving 
help  in  that  direction,  that  out  of  sheer  necessity, 
as  it  seemed  to  him,  Phillip  had  given  fully  half  of 
the  thousand  dollars  which  at  first  he  reserved  for 
his  own  expenses.  His  entire  expenses  were  reduced 
to  the  smallest  possible  amount.  Everything  above 
that  went  where  it  was  absolutely  needed.  He  was 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      233 

literally  sharing  what  he  had  with  the  people  who 
had  not  anything.  It  seemed  to  him  that  he  could 
not  consistently  do  anything  less  in  view  of  what  he 
had  preached. 

One  evening  in  the  middle  of  the  month  he  was 
invited  to  a  social  gathering  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
Winter.  The  mill-owner  had  of  late  been  expe- 
riencing a  revolution  of  thought.  His  attitude 
toward  Phillip  had  grown  more  and  more  friendly. 
Phillip  welcomed  the  rich  man's  change  of  feeling 
toward  him  with  an  honest  joy  at  the  thought  that 
the  time  might  come  when  he  would  see  his  privi- 
lege and  power,  and  use  both  to  the  glory  of  Christ's 
kingdom.  He  had  more  than  once  helped  Phillip 
lately  with  sums  of  money  for  the  relief  of  destitute 
cases,  and  a  feeling  of  mutual  confidence  was  grow- 
ing up  between  the  men. 

Phillip  went  to  the  gathering  with  the  feeling  that 
a  change  of  surroundings  and  thought  would  do  him 
good.  Mrs.  Strong,  who  for  some  reason  was  de- 
tained at  home,  urged  Phillip  to  go,  thinking  the 
social  evening  spent  in  bright  and  luxurious  sur- 
roundings would  be  a  rest  to  him  from  his  incessant 
labors  in  the  depressing  atmosphere  of  poverty  and 
disease. 

It  was  a  gathering  of  personal  friends  of  Mr. 
Winter,  including  some  of  the  church  people.  The 
moment  that  Phillip  stepped  into  the  spacious  hall 
and  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  furnishings  of  the  rooms 
beyond,  the  contrast  between  all  the  comfort  and 
brightness  of  this  house  and  the  last  place  he  had 


234      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

visited  in  the  tenement  district  smote  him  with  a 
sense  of  pain.  He  drove  it  back  and  blamed  him- 
self with  an  inward  reproach  that  he  was  growing 
narrow  and  could  think  of  only  one  idea. 

Phillip  could  not  remember  just  what  brought  up 
the  subject,  but  some  one  during  the  evening,  which 
was  passed  in  conversation  and  music,  mentioned 
the  rumor  going  about  of  increased  disturbance  in 
the  lower  part  of  the  town,  and  carelessly  wanted 
to  know  if  the  paper  did  not  exaggerate  the  facts. 
Some  one  turned  to  Phillip  and  asked  him  about  it 
as  the  one  best  informed.  Phillip  had  been  talk- 
ing with  an  intelligent  lawyer  who  had  been  reading 
a  popular  book  which  Phillip  had  also  reviewed  for 
a  magazine.  He  was  thoroughly  enjoying  the  talk, 
and  for  the  time  being  the  human  problem  which  had 
so  long  wearied  his  heart  and  mind  was  forgotten. 

He  was  roused  out  of  this  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion concerning  the  real  condition  of  affairs  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  town.  Instantly  his  mind  sprang 
back  to  that  which  absorbed  it  in  reality  more  than 
anything  else.  Before  he  knew  it  he  had  not  only 
answered  the  particular  question,  but  had  gone  on 
to  describe  the  picture  of  desperate  life  in  the  ten- 
ement district.  The  buzz  of  conversation  in  the 
other  rooms  gradually  ceased.  The  group  about 
the  minister  grew,  as  others  became  aware  that 
something  unusual  was  going  on  in  that  particular 
room.  Phillip  unconsciously  grew  eloquent  and  his 
handsome  face  lighted  up  with  the  fires  that  raged 
deep  in  him  at  the  thought  of  diseased  and  de- 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP   STRONG.      235 

praved  humanity.  He  did  not  know  just  how  long 
he  talked.  He  knew  there  was  a  great  hush  when 
he  had  ended.  Then  before  any  one  could  change 
the  stream  of  thought  some  young  woman  in  the 
music-room  who  had  not  known  what  was  going 
on  began  to  sing  to  a  new  instrumental  variation 
"  Home,  Sweet  Home."  Coming  as  it  did  after 
Phillip's  vivid  description  of  the  tenements,  it 
seemed  like  a  sob  of  despair  or  a  mocking  hypoc- 
risy. Phillip  drew  back  into  one  of  the  smaller 
rooms  and  began  to  look  over  some  art  prints  on  a 
table.  As  he  stood  there,  again  blaming  himself 
for  his  impetuous  breach  of  society  etiquette  in 
almost  preaching  on  such  an  occasion,  Mr.  Winter 
came  in  and  said  :  — 

"  It  does  not  seem  possible  that  such  a  state  of 
affairs  exists  as  you  describe,  Mr.  Strong.  Are  you 
sure  you  do  not  exaggerate?  " 

"  Exaggerate  !  Mr.  Winter,  you  have  pardoned 
my  little  sermon  here  to-night,  I  know.  It  was  forced 
on  me.  But  —  "  Phillip  choked,  and  then  with  an 
energy  that  was  all  the  stronger  for  being  repressed, 
he  said,  turning  full  toward  the  mill-owner,  "  Mr. 
Winter,  will  you  go  with  me  and  look  at  things  for 
yourself?  In  the  name  of  Christ  will  you  see  how 
humanity  is  sinning  and  suffering  not  more  than  a 
mile  from  this  home  of  yours?" 

Mr.  Winter  hesitated  and  then  said,  "  Yes,  I  '11 
go.  When?" 

"  Say  to-morrow  night.  Come  down  to  my  house 
early  and  we  will  start  from  there." 


336       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

Mr.  Winter  agreed,  and  when  Phillip  went  home 
he  glowed  with  hope.  If  once  he  could  get  people 
to  know  for  themselves  it  seemed  to  him  the  ful- 
filment of  his  desire  for  needed  co-operation  would 
follow. 

When  Mr.  Winter  came  down  the  next  evening, 
Phillip  asked  him  to  come  in  and  wait  a  few 
minutes,  as  he  was  detained  in  his  study-room  by 
a  caller.  The  mill-owner  sat  down  and  chatted 
with  Mrs.  Strong  a  little  while.  Finally  she  was 
called  into  the  other  room  and  Mr.  Winter  was 
left  alone.  The  door  into  the  sick  man's  room  was 
partly  open,  and  the  mill-owner  could  not  help 
hearing  the  conversation  between  the  Brother  Man 
and  his  son.  Something  said  made  Mr.  Winter 
curious,  and  when  Phillip  came  down  he  asked  him 
a  question  concerning  his  strange  boarder. 

"  Come  in  and  see  him,"  said  Phillip. 

He  brought  Mr.  Winter  into  the  little  room  and 
introduced  him  to  the  patient.  He  was  able  to  sit 
up  now.  At  mention  of  Mr.  Winter's  name  he 
flushed  and  trembled.  It  then  occurred  to  Phillip 
for  the  first  time  that  it  was  the  mill-owner  that  his 
assailant  that  night  had  intended  to  waylay  and 
rob.  For  a  second  the  minister  was  very  much  em- 
barrassed. Then  he  recovered  himself,  and  after  a 
few  quiet  words  with  Brother  Man  he  and  Mr. 
Winter  went  out  of  the  room  to  start  on  their  night 
visit  through  the  tenements. 

As  they  were  going  out  of  the  house  the  patient 
called  Phillip  back.  He  went  in  again  and  the  man 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      237 

said,  "  Mr.  Strong,  I  wish  you  would  tell  Mr.  Winter 
all  about  it." 

"  Would  you  feel  easier?  "  Phillip  asked  gently. 

"Yes." 

"All  right;  I '11  tell  him,  —  don't  worry.  Brother 
Man,  take  good  care  of  him.  I  shall  not  be  back 
until  late."  He  kissed  his  wife  and  joined  Mr. 
Winter,  and  together  they  made  the  round  of  the 
district. 

As  they  were  going  through  the  court  near  by  the 
place  where  Phillip  had  been  attacked,  he  told  the 
mill-owner  the  story.  It  affected  him  greatly ;  but 
as  they  went  on  through  the  tenements  the  sights 
that  met  him  there  wiped  out  the  recollection  of 
everything  else. 

It  was  all  familiar  to  Phillip ;  but  it  always  looked 
to  him  just  as  terrible.  The  heart-ache  for  humanity 
was  just  as  deep  in  him  at  sight  of  suffering  and 
injustice  as  if  this  had  been  the  first  instead  of  the 
hundredth  time  he  had  ever  seen  them.  But  to  the 
mill -owner  the  whole  thing  came  like  a  revelation. 
He  had  not  dreamed  of  such  a  condition  as  possible. 

"  How  many  people  are  there  in  our  church  that 
know  anything  about  this  plague  spot  from  personal 
knowledge,  Mr.  Winter?"  Phillip  asked  after  they 
had  been  out  about  two  hours. 

"  I  don't  know.     Very  few,  I  presume." 

"And  yet  they  ought  to  know  about  it.  How 
else  shall  all  this  sin  and  misery  be  done  away?" 

"  I  suppose  the  law  could  do  something,"  replied 
the  mill-owner,  feebly. 


238       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"The  law!"  Phillip  said  the  two  words  and 
then  stopped.  They  stumbled  over  a  heap  of  refuse 
thrown  out  into  the  doorway  of  a  miserable  struc- 
ture. "  Oh,  what  this  place  needs  is  not  law  and 
ordinances  and  statutes  so  much  as  live,  loving 
Christian  men  and  women  who  will  give  themselves 
and  a  large  part  of  their  means  to  cleanse  the  souls 
and  bodies  and  homes  of  this  wretched  district. 
We  have  reached  a  crisis  in  Milton  when  Christians 
must  give  themselves  to  humanity  !  Mr.  Winter,  I 
am  going  to  tell  Calvary  Church  so  next  Sunday." 

Mr.  Winter  was  silent.  They  had  come  out  of  the 
district  and  were  walking  along  together  toward  the 
upper  part  of  the  city.  The  houses  kept  growing 
larger  and  better.  Finally  they  came  up  to  the  ave- 
nue where  the  churches  were  situated,  —  a  broad, 
clean,  well-paved  street  with  magnificent  elms  and 
elegant  houses  on  either  side  and  the  seven  large, 
beautiful  church-buildings  with  their  spires  point- 
ing upward,  almost  all  of  them  visible  from  where 
the  two  men  stood.  They  paused  there  a  moment. 
The  contrast,  the  physical  contrast  was  overwhelm- 
ing to  Phillip,  and  to  the  wealthy  mill-man  coming 
from  the  unusual  sights  of  the  lower  town  it  must 
have  stood  out  with  a  new  meaning. 

A  door  in  one  of  the  houses  near  by  opened. 
A  group  of  people  passed  in.  The  glimpse  caught 
by  the  two  men  was  a  glimpse  of  bright,  flower- 
decorated  rooms,  beautiful  dresses,  glittering  jewels, 
and  a  table  heaped  with  delicacies.  It  was  the 
Paradise  of  Society,  the  display  of  its  ease,  its  soft 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      239 

enjoyment  of  pretty  things,  its  careless  indifference 
to  humanity's  pain  in  the  lower  town.  The  group 
of  new-comers  went  in,  a  strain  of  music  and  the 
echo  of  a  dancing  laugh  floated  out  into  the  street, 
and  then  the  door  closed. 

Mr.  Winter  and  Phillip  went  on.  Phillip  had  his 
own  reason  for  accompanying  the  other  home,  and 
Mr.  Winter  was  secretly  glad  of  his  presence,  for  he 
was  timid  at  night  alone  in  Milton.  He  broke  a 
long  silence  by  saying  :  — 

"  Mr.  Strong,  if  you  preach  to  the  people  to  leave 
such  pleasure  as  that  we  have  just  glanced  at  to  view 
or  suffer  such  things  as  we  found  in  the  tenements, 
you  must  expect  opposition.  I  doubt  if  they  will 
understand  your  meaning.  I  know  they  will  not 
do  any  such  thing.  It  is  asking  too  much." 

"  And  yet  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  '  although  he  was 
rich,  for  our  sakes  became  poor,  that  we,  through  his 
poverty,  might  be  rich.'  Mr.  Winter,  what  this 
town  needs  is  that  kind  of  Christianity,  —  the  kind 
that  will  give  up  the  physical  pleasures  of  life  to 
show  the  love  of  Christ  to  perishing  men.  I  believe 
it  is  just  as  true  now  as  when  Christ  lived,  that 
unless  they  are  willing  to  renounce  all  that  they 
have,  they  cannot  be  his  disciples." 

"  Do  you  mean  literally,  Mr.  Strong?  "  asked  the 
rich  man  after  a  little. 

"  Yes,  literally,  sometimes.  I  believe  the  awful 
condition  of  things  and  souls  we  have  witnessed  to- 
night will  not  be  any  better  until  many,  many  of  the 
professing  Christians  in  this  town  and  in  Calvary 


240       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

Church  are  willing  to  leave,  actually  to  leave  their 
beautiful  homes  and  spend  the  money  they  now 
spend  in  luxuries  for  the  good  of  the  weak  and  poor 
and  sinful." 

"  Do  you  think  Christ  would  preach  that  if  he 
were  in  Milton  ?  " 

"  I  do.  It  has  been  burned  into  me  that  he 
would.  I  believe  he  would  say  to  the  members  of 
Calvary  Church,  '  If  any  man  love  houses  and 
money  and  society  and  power  and  position  more 
than  me,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple.'  And  then  he 
would  test  the  entire  church  by  its  willingness  to 
renounce  all  these  physical  things.  And  if  he  found 
the  members  willing,  if  he  found  that  they  loved  him 
more  than  the  money  or  the  power,  he  might  not 
demand  a  literal  giving  up.  But  he  would  say  to 
them,  '  Take  my  money  and  my  power,  for  it  is  all 
mine,  and  use  them  for  the  building  up  of  my  king- 
dom.' He  would  not  then  perhaps  command  them 
to  leave  literally  their  beautiful  surroundings.  And 
then  in  some  cases  I  believe  that  he  would.  Oh, 
yes  !  —  sacrifice  !  sacrifice  !  What  does  the  Church 
in  America  in  this  age  of  the  world  know  about  it? 
How  much  do  church-members  give  themselves 
nowadays  to  the  Master  ?  That  is  what  we  need,  — 
self,  the  souls  of  men  and  women,  the  living  sac- 
rifices for  those  lost  children  down  yonder  !  Oh, 
God  !  —  to  think  of  what  Christ  gave  up  !  And 
then  to  think  of  how  little  his  Church  is  doing  to 
obey  his  last  command  to  go  and  make  disciples  of 
the  nations  !  " 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      241 

Phillip  strode  through  the  night  almost  forgetful 
of  his  companion.  By  this  time  they  had  reached 
Mr.  Winter's  house.  Very  little  was  said  by  the 
mill-owner.  A  few  brief  words  of  good-night,  and 
Phillip  started  for  home.  He  went  back  through 
the  avenue  on  which  the  churches  stood.  When  he 
reached  Calvary  Church  he  went  up  on  the  steps 
and  prayed.  Great  sobs  shook  him.  They  were 
sobs  without  tears,  —  sobs  that  were  articulate  here 
and  there  with  groans  of  anguish  and  desire.  He 
prayed  for  his  loved  church,  for  the  wretched 
beings  in  the  hell  of  torment,  without  God  and 
without  hope  in  the  world,  for  the  spirit  of  Christ 
to  come  again  into  the  heart  of  the  church  and 
teach  it  the  meaning  and  extent  of  sacrifice. 

When  at  last  he  rose  and  came  down  the  steps  it 
was  very  late.  The  night  was  cold,  but  he  did  not 
feel  it.  He  went  home.  He  was  utterly  exhausted. 
He  felt  that  the  burden  of  the  place  was  wearing 
him  out  and  crushing  him  into  the  earth.  He 
wondered  if  he  was  beginning  to  know  ever  so  little 
what  a  tremendous  invitation  that  was  :  "  Come  unto 
me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest."  All 7  The  weary,  sinful  souls  in 
Milton  were  more  than  he  could  carry.  He  shrank 
back  before  the  amazing  spectacle  of  the  mighty 
Burden-Bearer  of  the  sin  of  all  the  world,  and  fell 
down  at  his  feet  and  breathed  out  the  words,  "  My 
Lord  and  my  God  !  "  before  he  sank  into  a  heavy 
sleep. 

When   the  eventful  Sunday  came  he  faced   the 
16 


242      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

usual  immense  concourse.  He  did  not  come  out  of 
the  little  room  until  the  last  moment.  When  at 
length  he  appeared,  his  face  bore  marks  of  tears. 
At  last  they  had  flowed  as  a  relief  to  his  soul,  and  he 
gave  the  people  his  message  with  a  courage  and  a 
peace  and  a  love  born  of  direct  communion  with 
the  Spirit  of  Truth. 

As  he  went  on,  people  began  to  listen  in  amaze- 
ment. He  had  begun  by  giving  them  a  statement 
of  facts  concerning  the  sinful,  needy,  desperate  con- 
dition of  life  in  the  place.  He  then  rapidly  sketched 
the  contrast  between  the  surroundings  of  the  Chris- 
tian and  those  of  the  non-Christian  people,  between 
the  working-men  and  the  church- members.  He 
stated  what  was  the  fact  in  regard  to  the  unem- 
ployed and  the  vicious  and  the  ignorant  and  the 
suffering.  And  then  with  his  heart  going  out  to  the 
people,  he  spoke  the  words  which  aroused  the  most 
intense  astonishment :  — 

"  Disciples  of  Jesus,"  he  exclaimed,  "  the  time 
has  come  when  our  Master  demands  of  us  some  to- 
ken of  our  discipleship  greater  than  the  giving  of  a 
little  money  or  a  little  work  and  time  to  the  solution 
of  the  great  problem  of  modern  society  and  of  our 
own  city.  The  time  has  come  when  we  must  give 
ourselves.  The  time  has  come  when  we  must  re- 
nounce, if  it  is  best,  if  Christ  asks  it,  the  things  we 
have  so  long  counted  dear,  the  money,  the  luxury, 
the  homes  even,  and  go  down  into  the  tenement 
district  to  live  there  and  work  there  with  the  peo- 
ple. I  do  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood  here.  I 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STXONG. 


243 


do  not  believe  our  modern  civilization  is  an  ab- 
surdity. I  do  not  believe  Christ  if  he  were  here 
to-day  would  demand  of  us  foolish  things.  But  this 
I  do  believe  he  would  require,  —  ourselves.  We 
must  give  ourselves  in  some  way  that  will  mean  real, 
genuine,  downright,  and  decided  self-sacrifice.  If 
Christ  were  here  he  would  say  to  some  of  you,  as  he 
said  to  the  young  man,  "  Sell  all  you  have  and  give 
to  the  poor,  and  come,  follow  me."  And  if  you  were 
unwilling  to  do  it  he  would  say  you  could  not  be  his 
disciples.  The  test  of  discipleship  is  the  same  now 
as  then ;  the  price  is  no  less  on  account  of  the 
lapse  of  two  thousand  years.  Eternal  life  is  some- 
thing which  has  only  one  price,  and  that  is  the  same 
always. 

"  What  less  can  we  do  than  give  ourselves  and  all 
we  have  to  the  salvation  of  souls  in  this  city  ?  Have 
we  not  enjoyed  our  pleasant  things  long  enough  ? 
What  less  would  Christ  demand  of  the  church  to- 
day than  the  giving  up  of  its  unnecessary  luxuries, 
the  consecration  of  every  dollar  to  his  glory  and  the 
throwing  of  ourselves  on  the  altar  of  his  service? 
Members  of  Calvary  Church,  I  solemnly  believe  the 
time  has  come  when  it  is  our  duty  to  go  into  the 
tenement  district  and  redeem  it  by  the  power  of 
personal  sacrifice.  Nothing  less  will  answer.  To 
accomplish  this  great  task,  to  bring  back  to  God 
this  great  part  of  his  kingdom,  I  believe  we  ought 
to  spend  our  time,  our  money,  and  ourselves.  It  is 
a  sin  for  us  to  live  at  our  pleasant  ease,  in  enjoy- 
ment of  all  good  things,  while  men  and  women  and 


244      THE   CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

children  by  the  thousand  are  dying,  body  and  soul, 
before  our  very  eyes  in  need  of  the  blessings  of 
Christian  civilization  in  our  power  to  share  with 
them.  We  cannot  say  it  is  not  our  business.  We 
cannot  excuse  ourselves  on  the  plea  of  business. 
This  is  our  first  business,  —  to  love  God  and  man 
with  all  our  might.  This  problem  before  us  calls 
for  all  our  Christian  discipleship.  Every  heart  in 
this  church  should  cry  out  this  day,  "  Lord,  what 
wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ? "  And  each  soul  must 
follow  the  commands  that  honestly  he  hears.  But 
out  of  the  depths  of  the  black  abyss  of  human  want 
and  sin  and  despair  and  anguish  and  rebellion  in 
this  place  and  over  the  world  rings  in  my  ear  a  cry 
for  help  that  by  the  grace  of  God  I  truly  believe 
cannot  be  answered  by  the  Church  of  Christ  on 
earth  until  the  members  of  that  Church  are  willing 
in  great  numbers  to  give  all  their  money  and  all 
their  time  and  all  their  homes  and  all  their  luxuries 
and  all  their  accomplishments  and  all  their  artistic 
tastes  and  all  themselves  to  satisfy  the  needs  of  the 
generation  as  it  looks  for  the  heart  of  the  bleeding 
Christ  in  the  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
Yea,  truly,  except  a  man  is  willing  to  renounce  all 
that  he  hath,  he  cannot  be  his  disciple.  Does 
Christ  ask  any  member  of  Calvary  Church  to  re- 
nounce all  and  go  down  into  the  tenement  district 
to  live  Christ  there?  I  believe  he  does.  laterally? 
Yes. 

"Ah,    my  beloved,  if  Christ   speaks   so   to   you 
to-day,  listen  and  obey.     Service  !     Self !     That  is 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 


245 


what  he  wants.     And  if  he  asks  for  all,    when   all 

is  needed,  what  then  ?  Can  we  sing  that  hymn  with 

any  Christian  honesty  of  heart  unless  we  interpret 
it  literally  ?  — 

"  '  Were  the  whole  realm  of  nature  mine, 
That  were  an  offering  far  too  small ; 
Love  so  amazing,  so  divine, 

Demands  my  soul,  my  life,  my  all! '  " 

It  would  partly  describe  the  effect  of  this  sermon 
on  Calvary  Church  to  state  the  fact  that  when  Phil- 
lip ended  and  then  kneeled  down  by  the  side  of  the 
desk  to  pray,  the  silence  was  painful  and  the  intense 
feeling  provoked  by  his  remarkable  statements  was 
felt  in  the  appearance  of  the  audience  as  it  remained 
seated  after  the  benediction.  But  the  ultimate 
effect  was  yet  to  show  itself;  it  was  not  visible  in  the 
Sunday  audience. 

The  next  day  Phillip  was  unexpectedly  summoned 
out  of  Milton  to  the  parish  of  his  old  college  chum. 
His  old  friend  was  thought  to  be  dying.  He  had 
sent  for  Phillip  on  that  supposition.  Phillip,  whose 
affection  for  him  was  second  only  to  that  which  he 
gave  his  wife,  went  at  once.  His  friend  was  almost 
gone.  He  rallied  when  Phillip  came,  and  then  for 
two  weeks  his  life  swung  back  and  forth  between 
this  world  and  the  next.  Phillip  stayed  on  and  so 
was  gone  one  Sunday  from  his  pulpit  in  Milton. 
Then  the  week  following,  as  Alfred  gradually  came 
back  from  the  shore  of  that  other  world,  Phillip, 
assured  that  he  would  live,  returned  home. 


246      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

During  that  ten  days'  absence  serious  events  had 
taken  place  in  Calvary  Church.  Phillip  reached 
home  on  Wednesday.  He  at  once  went  to  the 
house  and  greeted  his  wife  and  the  Brother  Man, 
and  William,  who  was  now  sitting  up  in  the  large 
room. 

Phillip  had  not  been  home  more  than  an  hour 
when  the  greatest  drowsiness  and  dizziness  came 
over  him.  He  had  sat  up  much  with  his  chum  and 
was  entirely  worn  out.  He  went  upstairs  to  lie 
down  on  his  couch  in  his  small  study.  He  instantly 
fell  asleep  and  dreamed  that  he  was  standing  on  the 
platform  of  Calvary  Church.  He  thought  he  said 
something  the  people  did  not  like.  Suddenly  a 
man  in  the  audience  raised  a  revolver  and  fired  it 
at  him.  At  once,  from  all  over  the  house,  people 
aimed  revolvers  at  him  and  began  to  fire.  The 
noise  was  terrible,  and  in  the  midst  of  it  he  awoke 
to  feel  to  his  amazement  that  his  wife  was  kneeling 
at  the  side  of  the  couch,  sobbing  with  a  heart-ache 
that  was  terrible  to  him;  he  was  instantly  wide 
awake  and  her  dear  head  clasped  in  his  arms.  And 
when  he  prayed  her  to  tell  him  the  matter,  she 
sobbed  out  the  news  to  him  which  her  faithful, 
loving  heart  had  concealed  from  him  while  he  was 
at  the  bedside  of  his  friend.  And  even  when  the 
news  of  what  the  church  had  done  in  his  absence 
had  come  to  him  fully  through  her  broken  recital 
of  it,  he  did  not  realize  it  until  she  placed  in  his 
hands  the  letter  which  the  congregation  had  voted 
to  be  written,  asking  him  to  resign  his  pastorate 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      247 

of  Calvary  Church.  Even  then  he  fingered  the 
envelope  in  an  absent  way,  and  for  an  instant  his 
eyes  left  the  bowed  form  of  his  wife  and  looked  out 
beyond  the  sheds  over  to  the  tenements.  Then  he 
opened  the  letter  and  read  it. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

T)HILLIP  read  the  letter  through  without  lifting 
-L  his  eyes  from  the  paper  or  making  any 
comment.  It  was  as  follows  :  — 

REV.  PHILLIP  STRONG, 

Calvary  Church,  Milton: 

DEAR  SIR,  —  As  clerk  of  the  church  I  am  instructed 
to  inform  you  of  the  action  of  the  church  at  a  regularly 
called  meeting,  held  last  Thursday  night.  At  that  meet- 
ing it  was  voted  by  a  majority  present  that  you  be 
asked  to  resign  the  pastorate  of  Calvary  Church  for  the 
following  reasons :  — 

1.  There  is  a  very  wide-spread  discontent  on  the  part 
of  the  church-membership  on  account  of  the  use  of  the 
church  for  Sunday-evening  discussions  of  social,  politi- 
cal, and  economic  questions,  and  the  introduction  into 
the  pulpit  of  persons  whose  character  and  standing  are 
known  to  be  hostile  to  the  church  and  its  teachings. 

2.  The  business  men  of  the  church,  almost  without 
exception,  are  agreed,  and  so  expressed  themselves  at 
the  meeting,  that  the  sermon  of  Sunday  before  last  was 
exceedingly  dangerous  in  its  tone,  and  liable  to  lead  to 
the  gravest  results  in  acts  of  lawlessness  and  anarchy 
on  the  part  of  people  who  are  already  inflamed  to  deeds 
of  violence  against  property  and  wealth.     Such  preach- 
ing, in  the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  pew-owners  and 
supporters  of  Calvary  Church,  cannot  be  allowed,  or  the 
church  will  inevitably  lose  its  standing  in  society. 

3.  It  is  the  fixed  determination  of  a  majority  of  the 
oldest  and  most  influential  members  of  Calvary  Church 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      249 

to  withdraw  from  the  organization  all  support  under  the 
present  condition  of  affairs.  The  trustees  announced 
that  the  pledges  for  church  support  had  already  fallen 
off  very  largely,  and  last  Sunday  less  than  half  the 
regular  amount  was  received.  This  was  ascribed  to 
the  sermon  of  the  first  of  the  month. 

4.  The  vacation  of  the  parsonage  and  the  removal  of 
the  minister  into  the  region  of  the  tenement  district 
has  created  an  intense  feeling  on  the  part  of  a  large 
number  of  families  who  have  for  years  been  firm  sup- 
porters and  friends  of  the  church.     They  feel  that  the 
action  was  altogether  uncalled  for,  and  they  think  that 
it  has  been  the  means  of  disrupting  the  church  and 
throwing  matters  into  confusion,  besides  placing  the 
church  in  an  unfavorable  light  with  the  other  churches 
and  the  community  at  large. 

5.  It  was  the  opinion  of  a  majority  of  the  members 
present  that  while  much  of  the  spirit  exhibited  by  your- 
self was  highly  commendable,  yet  in  view  of  all   the 
facts  it  would  be  expedient  for  the  pastoral  relation  to 
be  severed.     The  continuance  of  that  relation  seemed 
to  promise  only  added  disturbance  and  increased  antag- 
onism in  the  church.     It  was  the  well-nigh  unanimous 
verdict  that  your  plans  and  methods  might  succeed  to 
your  better  satisfaction  with  a  constituency  made  up  of 
non-church  people,  and  that  possibly  your  own  inclina- 
tions would  lead  you  to  take  the  step  which  the  church 
has  thought  wisest  and  best  for  all  concerned. 

It  is  my  painful  duty  as  the  clerk  of  Calvary  Church 
to  write  thus  plainly  the  action  of  the  church  and 
the  specific  reasons  for  that  action.  A  council  will 
be  called  to  review  our  proceedings  and  advise  with 
reference  to  the  same. 

In  behalf  of  the  church, 

CALVIN  SMITH,  Clerk. 


250      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

Phillip  finished  the  letter  and  lifted  his  eyes  again. 
And  again  he  looked  out  through  the  window  across 
the  sheds  to  the  roofs  of  the  tenements.  From 
where  he  sat  he  could  also  see,  across  the  city,  up 
on  the  rising  ground,  the  spire  of  Calvary  Church. 
It  rose  distinct  and  cold  against  the  gray  December 
sky.  The  air  was  clear  and  frosty,  the  ground  was 
covered  with  snow,  and  the  roofs  of  the  tenements 
showed  black  and  white  patches  where  the  thinner 
snow  had  melted.  He  was  silent  so  long  that  his 
wife  became  frightened. 

"  Phillip  !  Phillip  !  "  she  cried,  as  she  threw  her 
arms  about  his  neck  and  drew  his  head  down  nearer. 
"  They  have  broken  your  heart !  They  have  killed 
you  !  There  is  no  love  in  the  world  any  more  ! " 

"  No  !  No  !  "  he  cried  suddenly.  "  You  must 
not  say  that !  You  make  me  doubt.  There  is  the 
love  of  Christ,  which  passeth  knowledge.  But  oh, 
for  the  Church  !  —  which  he  loved  and  for  which  he 
gave  himself ! " 

"  But  it  is  not  the  Church  of  Christ  that  has  done 
this  thing,  Phillip." 

"  Nevertheless  it  is  the  Church  in  the  world,"  he 
replied.  "Tell  me,  Sarah,  how  this  was  kept  so 
secret  from  me." 

"  You  forget.  You  were  so  entirely  absorbed  in 
the  care  of  Alfred ;  and  then  the  church  meeting 
was  held  with  closed  doors.  Even  the  papers  did 
not  know  the  whole  truth  at  once.  I  kept  it  from 
you  as  long  as  I  could  !  " 

"  Little  woman,"  spoke  Phillip,  very  gently  and 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       251 

calmly,  "  this  is  a  blow  to  me.  I  did  not  think  the 
church  would  do  it.  I  hoped  —  "  he  paused  and 
his  voice  trembled  for  a  brief  moment,  then  grew 
quiet  again,  "  I  hoped  I  was  gradually  overcoming 
opposition.  It  seems  I  was  mistaken.  It  seems  I 
did  not  know  the  feeling  in  the  church." 

He  looked  out  of  the  window  again  and  was 
silent.  Then  he  asked,  "  Are  they  all  against 
me?"  The  question  came  with  a  faint  smile  that 
was  far  more  heart-breaking  to  his  wife  than  a  flood 
of  tears.  She  burst  into  a  sob. 

"  No,  you  have  friends.  Mr.  Winter  fought  for 
you,  —  and  others." 

"  Mr.  Winter  !  —  my  old  enemy  !  That  was  good. 
And  there  were  others?  " 

"  Yes,  quite  a  number.  But  nearly  all  the  influ- 
ential members  were  against  you.  Phillip,  you  have 
been  blind  to  all  this." 

"Do  you  think  so?"  Phillip  asked  simply. 
"  Maybe  that  is  so.  I  have  not  thought  of  people 
so  much  as  of  the  work  which  needed  to  be  done. 
I  have  tried  to  do  as  my  Master  would  have  me. 
But  I  have  lacked  wisdom,  or  tact,  or  something." 

"  Phillip,  it  is  not  that.  Do  you  want  to  know 
what  I  believe  ?  "  His  wife  fondly  stroked  the  hair 
back  from  his  forehead,  as  she  sat  on  the  couch  by 
him. 

"Yes,  little  woman,  tell  me."  To  Phillip's  eyes 
his  wife  never  seemed  so  beautiful  or  dear  as  now. 
He  knew  that  they  were  one  in  this  their  hour  of 
trouble. 


252       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  Well,  I  have  learned  to  believe  since  you  came 
to  Milton  that  if  Jesus  Christ  were  to  live  on  the 
earth  in  this  century  and  become  the  pastor  of 
almost  any  large  and  wealthy  or  influential  church 
and  preach  as  he  would  have  to,  the  church  would 
treat  him  just  as  Calvary  Church  has  treated  you. 
The  world  would  crucify  Jesus  Christ  again  even 
after  two  thousand  years  of  historical  Christianity." 

Phillip  did  not  speak.  He  looked  out  again 
toward  the  tenements.  The  winter  day  was  draw- 
ing to  its  close.  The  church  spire  still  stood  out 
sharp  against  the  sky.  Finally  he  turned  to  his 
wife,  and  with  almost  a  groan  he  uttered  the  words  : 
"  Sarah,  I  do  not  like  to  believe  it.  The  world  is 
full  of  the  love  of  Christ.  It  is  not  the  same  world 
as  Calvary  saw." 

"No,  Phillip.  But  by  what  test  are  nominal 
Christians  and  church-members  tried  to-day?  Is 
not  the  church  in  America  and  England  a  church 
in  which  the  scribes  and  pharisees,  hypocrites,  are 
just  as  certainly  found  as  they  were  in  the  old 
Jewish  church?  And  would  not  that  element 
crucify  Christ  again  if  he  spoke  as  plainly  now  as 
then?" 

Again  Phillip  looked  out  of  the  window.  His 
whole  nature  was  shaken  to  its  foundation.  Re- 
peatedly he  drove  back  the  thought  of  the  church's 
possible  action  in  face  of  the  Christ  of  this  cen- 
tury. As  often  it  returned  and  his  soul  cried  out 
in  anguish  at  the  suggestion  of  the  truth.  Even 
with  the  letter  of  Calvary  Church  before  him  he  was 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.       253 

slow  to  believe  that  the  Church  as  a  whole  or  in  a 
majority  of  cases  would  reject  the  Master. 

"  I  have  made  mistakes.  I  have  been  lacking  in 
tact.  I  have  needlessly  offended  the  people,"  he 
said  to  his  wife,  yielding  almost  for  the  first  time  to 
a  great  fear  and  distrust  of  himself.  For  the  letter 
asking  his  resignation  had  shaken  him  as  once  he 
thought  impossible.  "  I  have  tried  to  preach  and 
act  as  Christ  would ;  but  I  have  failed  to  interpret 
him  aright.  Is  it  not  so,  Sarah  ?  " 

His  wife  was  reluctant  to  speak.  But  her  true 
heart  made  answer :  "  No,  Phillip,  you  have  inter- 
preted him  too  faithfully.  You  may  have  made 
mistakes ;  all  ministers  do ;  but  I  honestly  believe 
you  have  preached  as  Christ  would  against  the 
great  selfishness  and  hypocrisy  of  the  century.  The 
same  thing  would  have  happened  to  him." 

They  talked  a  little  longer,  and  then  Phillip 
said  :  — 

"  Let  us  go  down  and  see  the  Brother  Man. 
Somehow  I  feel  inclined  to  talk  with  him." 

So  they  went  downstairs  and  into  the  room  where 
the  invalid  was  sitting  with  the  old  man.  Wil- 
liam was  able  to  walk  about  now,  and  had  been 
saying  that  he  wanted  to  hear  Phillip  preach  as  soon 
as  he  could  get  to  the  church. 

"  Well,  Brother  Man,"  said  Phillip,  with  some- 
thing like  his  old  heartiness  of  manner,  "  have  you 
heard  the  news?  Othello's  occupation's  gone." 

The  Brother  Man  seemed  to  know  all  about  it. 
Whether  he  had  heard  of  it  through  some  of  the 


254      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

church  people  or  not,  Mr.  Strong  did  not  know. 
The  old  man  looked  at  Phillip  calmly.  There  was 
loving  sympathy  in  his  voice,  but  no  trace  of  com- 
passion or  wonder.  Evidently  he  had  not  been 
talking  of  the  subject  to  any  one. 

"  I  knew  it  would  happen,"  he  said.  "  You  have 
offended  the  rulers." 

"  What  would  you  do,  Brother  Man,  in  my 
place?  Would  you  resign?"  Phillip  remembered 
the  time  when  the  Brother  Man  had  asked  him  why 
he  did  not  resign. 

"  Don't  they  ask  you  to?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Do  you  think  it  is  the  wish  of  the  whole 
church?" 

"  No,  there  are  some  who  want  me  to  stay." 

"  How  do  you  feel  about  it?  "  The  Brother  Man 
put  the  question  almost  timidly.  Phillip  replied 
without  hesitation  :  — 

"  There  is  only  one  thing  for  me  to  do.  It  would 
be  impossible  for  me  to  remain  after  what  has  been 
done." 

The  Brother  Man  nodded  his  head  as  if  in 
approval.  He  did  not  seem  disturbed  in  the  least. 
His  demeanor  was  the  most  perfect  expression  of 
peace  that  Phillip  ever  saw. 

"We  shall  have  to  leave  Milton,  Brother  Man," 
said  Phillip,  thinking  that  possibly  he  did  not  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  the  resignation. 

"Yes,  we  will  go  away  together.  Together." 
The  Brother  Man  looked  at  his  son  and  smiled. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      255 

"Mr.  Strong,"  said  William,  "we  cannot  be  a 
burden  on  you  another  day.  I  am  able  to  get  out 
now,  and  I  will  find  work  somewhere  and  provide  for 
my  father  and  myself.  It  is  terrible  to  me  to  think 
of  how  long  we  have  been  living  on  your  slender 
means."  And  William  gave  Phillip  a  look  of  grati- 
tude and  love  that  made  Phillip's  heart  warm  again. 

"  My  brother,  we  will  see  to  that  all  right.  You 
have  been  more  than  welcome.  Just  what  I  will  do, 
I  don't  know,  but  I  am  sure  the  way  will  be  made 
clear  in  time,  are  n't  you,  Brother  Man?  " 

"  Yes,  the  road  to  heaven  is  always  clear,"  he  said, 
almost  singing  the  words. 

"  We  shall  have  to  leave  this  house,  Brother 
Man,"  said  Sarah,  feeling  with  Phillip  that  he  did 
not  grasp  the  meaning  of  the  event. 

"  Yes,  in  the  Father's  house  are  many  mansions," 
replied  the  Brother  Man.  Then  as  Phillip  and  his 
wife  sat  there  in  the  gathering  gloom  the  old  man 
said  suddenly,  "  Let  us  pray  together  about  it." 

He  kneeled  down  and  offered  the  most  remark- 
able prayer  that  Phillip  had  ever  heard.  It  seemed 
to  him  that  however  the  old  man's  mind  might  be 
affected,  the  part  of  him  that  touched  God  in  the 
communion  of  audible  prayer  was  absolutely  free 
from  any  weakness  or  disease.  It  was  a  prayer  that 
laid  its  healing  balm  on  the  soul  of  Phillip  and 
soothed  his  trouble  into  peace.  When  the  old  man 
finished,  Phillip  felt  almost  cheerful  again.  He 
went  out  and  helped  his  wife  a  few  minutes  in  some 
work  about  the  kitchen.  And  after  supper  he  was 


256      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG, 

just  getting  ready  to  go  out  to  inquire  after  a  sick 
family  near  by,  when  there  was  a  knock  at  the  door. 

It  was  a  messenger  boy  with  a  telegram.  Phillip 
opened  it  almost  mechanically  and  carrying  it  to  the 
light  read  :  — 

"Alfred  died  four  p.  M.     Can  you  come?  " 

For  a  second,  Phillip  did  not  realize  the  news. 
Then  as  it  rushed  upon  him,  he  staggered  and  would 
have  fallen  if  the  table  had  not  been  so  close.  A 
faintness  and  a  pain  seized  him  and  for  a  minute  he 
thought  he  was  falling.  Then  he  pulled  himself  to- 
gether and  called  his  wife ,  who  was  in  the  kitchen. 
She  came  in  at  once,  noticing  the  peculiar  tone  of 
his  voice. 

"  Alfred  is  dead  !  "  He  was  saying  the  words 
quietly  as  he  held  out  the  telegram. 

"  Dead  !  And  you  left  him  getting  better  !  How 
dreadful ! " 

"  Do  you  think  so?  He  is  at  rest.  I  must  go  up 
there  at  once ;  they  expect  me."  He  still  spoke 
quietly,  stilling  the  tumult  of  his  heart's  anguish  for 
his  wife's  sake.  This  man,  his  old  college  chum,  was 
very  dear  to  him.  The  news  was  terrible  to  him. 

Nevertheless,  he  made  his  preparations  to  go  back 
to  his  friend's  home.  It  is  what  either  would  have 
done  in  the  event  of  the  other's  death.  And  so  he 
was  gone  from  Milton  until  after  the  funeral,  and  did 
not  return  until  Saturday.  In  those  three  days  of 
absence  Milton  was  stirred  by  events  that  grew  out 
of  the  action  of  the  church.- 

In  the  first  place  the  minority  in  the  church  held 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OP  PHILLIP  STRONG.      257 

a  meeting  and  voted  to  ask  Phillip  to  remain,  pledg- 
ing him  their  hearty  support  in  all  his  plans  and 
methods.  The  paper,  in  its  report  of  this  meeting, 
made  the  most  of  the  personal  remarks  that  were 
made,  and  served  up  the  whole  affair  in  sensational 
items,  that  were  eagerly  read  by  every  one  in  Milton. 

But  the  most  important  gathering  of  Phillip's 
friends  was  that  of  the  mill -men.  They  met  in  the 
hall  where  he  had  so  often  spoken,  and  being 
crowded  out  of  that  by  the  great  numbers,  they  se- 
cured the  use  of  the  court  house.  This  was  crowded 
with  an  excited  assembly,  and  in  the  course  of  very 
many  short  speeches  in  which  the  action  of  the  church 
was  severely  condemned,  a  resolution  was  offered 
and  adopted  asking  Phillip  to  remain  in  Milton  and 
organize  an  association  or  something  of  a  similar 
order  for  the  purpose  of  sociological  study  and  agi- 
tation, pledging  whatever  financial  support  could  be 
obtained  from  the  working-people.  This  also  was 
caught  up  and  magnified  in' the  paper,  and  the  town 
was  still  roused  to  excitement  by  all  these  reports 
when  Phillip  returned  home  late  Saturday  afternoon, 
almost  reeling  with  exhaustion,  and  his  heart  torn 
with  the  separation  from  his  old  chum. 

However,  he  tried  to  conceal  his  weariness  from 
Sarah,  and  partly  succeeded.  After  supper  he  went 
up  to  his  study  to  prepare  for  the  Sunday.  He  had 
fully  made  up  his  mind  as  to  what  he  would  do,  and 
he  wanted  to  do  it  in  a  manner  that  would  cast 
no  reproach  on  his  profession,  which  he  sincerely 
respected. 

17 


258      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

He  shut  the  door  and  began  his  preparation-  by 
walking  up  and  down,  as  his  custom  was,  thinking 
out  the  details  of  the  service,  his  sermon,  the  exact 
wording  of  certain  phrases  he  wished  to  make. 

He  had  been  walking  thus  back  and  forth  half  a 
dozen  times,  when  he  felt  the  same  acute  pain  in 
his  side  that  had  seized  him  when  he  fainted  in 
church  at  the  evening  service.  It  passed  away  and 
he  resumed  his  walk  thinking  it  was  only  a  passing 
disorder.  But  before  he  could  turn  again  in  his 
walk  he  felt  a  dizziness  that  whirled  everything  in 
the  room  about  him.  He  clutched  at  a  chair  and 
was  conscious  of  having  missed  it,  and  then  he  fell 
forward  in  such  a  way  that  he  lay  partly  on  the 
couch  and  partly  on  the  floor,  and  became 
unconscious. 

How  long  he  had  been  in  this  condition  he  did 
not  know,  when  he  came  to  himself.  He  was  thank- 
ful, when  he  did  recover  sufficiently  to  crawl  to  his 
feet  and  sit  down  on  the  couch,  that  Sarah  had  not 
seen  him.  He  managed  to  get  over  to  his  desk  and 
begin  to  write  something  as  he  heard  her  coming  up- 
stairs. He  did  not  intend  to  deceive  her.  His 
thought  was  that  he  would  not  unnecessarily  alarm 
her.  He  was  very  tired.  It  did  not  need  much 
urging  to  persuade  him  to  get  to  bed.  And  so, 
without  saying  anything  about  his  second  fainting 
attack,  he  went  downstairs  and  was  soon  sleeping 
very  heavily. 

He  awoke  on  Sunday  morning  feeling  strangely 
calm  and  refreshed.  The  morning  prayer  with  the 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 


259 


Brother .  Man  came  like  a  benediction  to  them  all. 
Sarah,  who  had  feared  for  Phillip,  owing  to  the  severe 
strain  he  had  been  enduring,  felt  relieved  as  she  saw 
how  he  appealed.  They  all  prepared  to  go  to 
church,  the  Brother  Man  and  William  going  out  for 
the  first  time  since  the  attack  on  Phillip. 

We  have  mentioned  Phillip's  custom  of  coming 
into  his  pulpit  from  the  little  room  at  the  side  of  the 
platform.  This  morning  he  went  in  at  the  side  door 
of  the  church  after  parting  with  Sarah  and  the  others. 
He  let  Brother  Man  and  William  go  on  ahead  a  little, 
and  then  drawing  his  wife  to  him  he  stooped  and 
kissed  her.  He  turned  at  the  top  of  the  short  flight 
of  steps  leading  up  to  the  side  entrance  and  saw  her 
still  standing  in  the  same  place.  Then  she  went 
around  from  the  little  court  to  the  front  of  the 
church,  and  went  in  with  the  great  crowd  already 
beginning  to  stream  toward  Calvary  Church. 

No  one  ever  saw  so  many  people  in  Calvary 
Church  before.  Men  sat  on  the  platform  and  even 
in  the  deep  window-seats.  The  spaces  under  the 
large  galleries  by  the  walls  were  filled  mostly  with 
men  standing  there.  The  house  was  crowded  long 
before  the  hour  of  service.  There  were  many  beat- 
ing, excited  hearts  in  that  audience.  More  than 
one  member  was  ashamed  at  the  action  which  had 
been  taken,  and  might  have  wished  it  recalled. 
With  the  great  number  of  working-men  and  young 
people  in  the  church  there  was  only  one  feeling ;  it 
was  a  feeling  of  love  for  Phillip,  and  of  sorrow  for 
what  had  been  done.  The  fact  that  Phillip  had 


260       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

been  away  from  the  city,  that  he  had  not  talked  over 
the  matter  with  any  one,  owing  to  his  absence, 
the  uncertainty  as  to  how  he  would  receive  the 
whole  thing,  what  he  would  say  on  this  first  Sunday 
after  the  letter  had  been  written,  —  this  attracted 
a  certain  number  of  persons  who  never  go  inside  a 
church  except  for  some  extraordinary  occasion,  or 
in  hopes  of  a  sensation.  So  the  audience  that 
memorable  day  had  some  cruel  people  present,  — 
people  who  narrowly  watch  the  faces  of  mourners 
at  funerals  to  see  what  ravages  grief  has  made  on 
the  countenance. 

The  organist  played  his  prelude  through  and  was 
about  to  stop,  when  he  saw  in  the  glass  that  hung 
over  the  keys  that  Phillip  had  not  yet  appeared. 
He  began  again  at  a  certain  measure,  repeating  it, 
and  played  very  slowly.  By  this  time  the  church 
was  entirely  filled.  There  was  an  air  of  expectant 
waiting  as  the  organ  again  ceased,  and  still  Phillip 
did  not  come  out.  A  great  fear  came  over  Mrs. 
Strong.  She  had  half  risen  from  her  seat  near  the 
platform  to  go  up  and  open  the  study  door,  when  it 
opened  and  Phillip  came  out. 

Whatever  his  struggle  had  been  in  that  little 
room  the  closest  observer  could  not  detect  any  trace 
of  tears  or  sorrow  or  shame  or  humiliation.  He 
was  pale,  but  that  was  common ;  otherwise  his  face 
wore  a  firm,  noble,  peaceful  look.  As  he  gazed  over 
the  congregation  the  people  felt  the  fascination  of 
his  glances.  The  first  words  that  he  spoke  in  the 
service  were  strong  and  clear.  Never  had  the 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      261 

people  seen  so  much  to  admire  in  his  appearance 
as  a  public  speaker ;  and  when,  after  the  opening 
exercises  and  the  regular  order  of  service,  he  rose 
and  came  out  at  one  side  of  the  desk  to  speak,  as 
his  custom  was,  the  people  were  for  the  time  under 
the  magic  sway  of  his  personality,  that  never  stood 
out  so  commanding  and  loving  and  true-hearted  as 
then. 

He  began  to  speak  very  quietly  and  simply,  as  his 
fashion  was,  announcing  the  fact  that  he  had  been 
asked  to  resign  his  pastorate  of  Calvary  Church. 
He  made  the  statement  clearly,  with  no  halting  or 
hesitation  or  sentiment  of  tone  or  gesture.  Then 
after  saying  that  there  was  only  one  course  open  to 
him  under  the  circumstances,  he  went  on  to  speak 
in  defence  of  his  interpretation  of  Christ  and  his 
teaching. 

"Members  of  Calvary  Church,  1  call  you  to -bear 
witness  to-day ;  1  have  tried  to  preach  to  you 
Christ  and  him  crucified.  I  have,  doubtless,  made 
mistakes ;  we  all  make  them.  I  have  offended 
the  rich  men  and  the  property-owners  in  Milton. 
I  could  not  help  it ;  I  was  obliged  to  do  so  in  order 
to  speak  as  I  this  moment  solemnly  believe  my 
Lord  would  speak.  I  have  aroused  opposition 
because  I  asked  men  into  the  church  and  upon  this 
platform  who  do  not  call  themselves  Christians,  for 
the  purpose  of  knowing  their  reasons  for  antagonism 
to  the  church  we  love.  But  the  time  has  come,  O 
my  brothers,  when  the  Church  must  welcome  to  its 
counsels,  in  matters  that  affect  the  world's  greatest 


262       THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

good,  all  men  who  have  at  heart  the  fulfilment  of 
the  Christ's  teachings. 

"  But  the  cause  which  more  than  any  other  has 
led  to  the  action  of  this  church  has  been,  I  am 
fully  aware,  my  demand  that  the  church-members 
of  this  city  should  leave  their  possessions  and  go 
and  live  with  the  poor,  wretched,  sinful,  hopeless 
people  in  the  lower  town,  sharing  in  wise  ways  with 
them  of  the  good  things  of  the  world.  But  why  do 
I  speak  of  all  this  in  defence  of  my  action  or  my 
preaching?" 

Suddenly  Phillip  seemed  to  feel  a  revulsion 
of  attitude  toward  the  whole  of  what  he  had 
been  saying.  It  was  as  if  there  had  instantly 
swept  over  him  the  knowledge  that  he  could  never 
make  the  people  before  him  understand  his  motive 
or  his  Christ.  His  speech  had  so  far  been  quiet, 
unimpassioned,  deliberate.  His  whole  manner  now 
underwent  a  swift  change.  People  in  the  galleries 
noticed  it,  and  men  leaned  out  far  over  the  gallery- 
railing,  and  more  than  one  closed  his  hands  tight  in 
emotion  at  the  sight  and  hearing  of  the  tall,  fiery 
figure  on  the  platform. 

For  the  intense  love  for  the  people  that  Phillip 
felt  had  surged  into  him  uncontrollably.  It  swept 
away  all  other  things.  He  no  longer  sought  to 
justify  his  ways ;  he  seemed  bent  on  revealing  to 
them  the  mighty  love  of  Christ  for  them  and  the 
world.  His  lip  trembled,  his  voice  shook  with  the 
yearning  of  his  soul  for  the  people,  and  his  frame 
quivered  with  longing. 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      263 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  I  love  you,  people  of  Milton 
beloved  members  of  this  church.  I  would  have 
opened  my  arms  to  every  sinful  child  of  humanity 
here  and  shown  him,  if  I  could,  the  boundless  love 
of  his  heavenly  Father  !  But  oh,  ye  would  not !  Ye 
would  not  !  And  yet  the  love  of  Christ !  What  a 
wonderful  thing  it  is  !  How  much  he  wished  us 
to  enjoy  of  peace  and  hope  and  fellowship  and 
sen-ice  !  Yes,  service,  —  that  is  what  the  world 
needs  to-day ;  service  that  is  willing  to  give  all, 
all  to  Him  who  gave  all  to  save  us  !  O  Christ, 
Master,  teach  us  to  do  thy  will.  Make  us  servants 
to  the  poor  and  sinful  and  helpless.  Make  thy 
Church  on  earth  more  like  thyself !  " 

Those  nearest  Phillip  saw  him  suddenly  raise  his 
handkerchief  to  his  lips,  and  then,  when  he  took  it 
away,  it  was  stained  with  blood.  But  the  people 
did  not  see  that.  And  then  —  and  then  —  a  re- 
markable thing  took  place. 

On  the  rear  wall  of  Calvary  Church  there  had  been 
painted,  when  the  church  was  built,  a  Latin  cross. 
This  cross  had  been  the  source  of  almost  endless 
dispute  among  the  church-members.  Some  said  it 
was  inartistic ;  others  said  it  was  in  keeping  with 
the  name  of  the  church,  and  had  a  right  place  in  the 
church  as  part  of  its  inner  adornment.  Once  the 
dispute  had  grown  so  large  and  serious  that  the 
church  had  voted  as  to  its  removal  or  retention  on 
the  wall.  A  small  majority  had  voted  to  leave  it 
there,  and  there  it  remained.  It  was  perfectly  white, 
on  a  panel  of  thin  wood,  and  stood  out  very  conspic- 


264      THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STJRO.VG. 

uous  above  the  rear  of  the  platform.  It  was  not  di- 
rectly behind  the  desk,  but  several  feet  at  one  side. 

Phillip  had  never  made  any  allusion  in  his  ser- 
mons to  this  feature  of  Calvary  Church's  architec- 
ture. People  had  wondered  sometimes  that  with  his 
imaginative,  poetical  temperament  he  never  had 
done  so,  especially  once  when ,  a  sermon  on  the 
crucifixion  had  thrilled  the  people  wonderfully.  It 
might  have  been  his  extreme  sensitiveness,  his 
shrinking  from  anything  like  cheap  sensation. 

But  now  he  stepped  back,  —  it  was  not  far,  —  and 
turning  partly  around,  with  one  long  arm  extended 
toward  the  cross  as  if  in  imagination  he  saw  the 
Christ  upon  it,  he  cried  out,  " '  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  ! '  Yes  — 

"'In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory, 

Towering  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time; 
All  the  light  of  sacred  story 
Gathers  round  —  ' ' 

His  voice  suddenly  ceased,  he  threw  his  arms  up, 
and  as  he  turned  a  little  forward  toward  the  congre- 
gation he  was  seen  to  reel  and  stagger  back  against 
the  wall.  For  one  intense  tremendous  second  of 
time  he  stood  there  with  the  whole  church  smitten 
into  a  pitying,  horrified,  startled,  motionless  crowd 
of  blanched  staring  faces,  as  his  tall  dark  figure  tow- 
ered up  with  outstretched  arms,  almost  covering  the 
very  outlines  of  the  cross,  and  then  he  sank  down  at 
its  foot. 

A  groan  went  up  from  the  audience.      Several 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG.      265 

men  sprang  up  the  platform  steps.  Mrs.  Strong  was 
the  first  person  to  reach  the  figure  of  her  husband. 
Two  or  three  helped  to  bear  him  to  the  front  of  the 
platform.  Sarah  kneeled  down  by  him.  She  put 
her  head  against  his  breast.  Then  she  raised  her 
face  and  said  calmly,  "  He  is  dead." 

The  Brother  Man  was  kneeling  on  the  other  side. 
"  No,"  he  said  with  an  indescribable  gesture  and  an 
untranslatable  inflection,  "  he  is  not  dead.  He  is  liv- 
ing in  the  eternal  mansions  of  glory  with  his  Lord  !  " 

But  the  news  was  borne  from  lip  to  lip,  "  He  is 
dead  !  "  And  that  is  the  way  men  speak  of  the 
body.  And  they  were  right.  The  body  of  Phillip 
was  dead.  And  the  Brother  Man  was  right  also. 
For  Phillip  himself  was  alive  in  glory,  and  when 
they  bore  the  tabernacle  of  his  flesh  out  of  Calvary 
Church  that  day,  that  was  all  they  bore.  His  soul 
was  out  of  the  reach  of  humanity's  selfishness  and 
humanity's  sorrow. 

They  said  that  when  the  funeral  of  Phillip  Strong's 
body  was  held  in  Milton,  rugged,  unfeeling  men  were 
seen  to  cry  like  children  in  the  streets.  A  great 
procession,  largely  made  up  of  the  poor  and  sinful, 
followed  him  to  his  wintry  grave.  They  lingered 
long  about  the  spot.  Finally,  every  one  withdrew 
except  Sarah,  who  refused  to  be  led  away  by  her 
friends,  and  William  and  the  Brother  Man.  They 
stood  looking  down  into  the  grave. 

"  He  was  very  young  to  die,"  at  last  Sarah  said, 
with  u.  calmness  that  was  more  terrible  than  bursts 
of  grief. 


266       THE   CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP  STRONG. 

"  So  was  Christ,"  replied  Brother  Man,  simply. 

"  But  oh,  Phillip,  Phillip,  my  beloved,  they  killed 
him  !  "  she  cried ;  and  at  last,  for  she  had  not  wept 
yet,  great  tears  rolled  down  into  the  grave,  and  un- 
controllable anguish  seized  her.  Brother  Man  did 
not  attempt  to  console  or  interrupt.  He  knew  she 
was  in  the  arms  of  God.  After  a  long  lime  he  said  : 
"  Yes,  they  crucified  him.  But  he  is  with  his  Lord 
now.  Let  us  be  glad  for  him.  Let  us  leave  him 
with  the  Eternal  Peace." 

When  the  snow  had  melted  from  the  hillside  and 
the  first  arbutus  was  beginning  to  bud  and  blossom, 
one  day  some  men  came  out  to  the  grave  and  put 
up  a  plain  stone  at  the  head.  After  the  men  had 
done  this  work  they  went  away.  One  of  them  lin- 
gered. He  was  the  wealthy  mill-owner.  He  stood 
with  his  hat  in  his  hand  and  his  head  bent  down, 
his  eyes  resting  on  the  words  carved  into  the  stone. 
They  were  these  :  — 

PHILLIP  STRONG. 
PASTOR  OF  CALVARY  CHURCH,  MILTON. 

"  In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory, 

Towering  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time ; 
All  the  light  of  sacred  story 
Gathers  round  —  " 

Mr.  Winter  looked  at  the  incomplete  line  and 
then,  as  he  turned  away  and  walked  slowly  back 
down  into  Milton  he  said,  "Yes,  it  is  better  so. 
We  must  complete  it  for  him." 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  OF  PHILLIP   STRONG.       267 

Ah,  Phillip  Strong !  Thy  sacrifice  was  not  in 
vain !  The  Resurrection  is  not  far  from  the 
Crucifixion. 

Near  to  its  close  rolls  up  the  century ; 

And  still  the  Church  of  Christ  upon  the  earth 
Which  marks  the  Christmas  of  his  lowly  birth, 

Contains  the  selfish  Scribe  and  Pharisee. 
O  Christ  of  God,  exchanging  gain  for  loss, 
Would  men  still  nail  thee  to  the  self-same  cross  ? 

It  is  the  Christendom  of  Time,  and  still 

Wealth  and  the  love  of  it  hold  potent  sway; 

The  heart  of  man  is  stubborn  to  obey, 
The  Church  has  yet  to  do  the  Master's  will. 

O  Christ  of  God,  we  bow  our  souls  to  thee  ; 

Hasten  the  dawning  of  thy  Church  to  be! 


THE  END. 


Charles  M.  Sheldon's  Books. 


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